During Wednesday’s meeting of the State Security Council, Lukashenko tasked with various elements of the state leadership’s lists of regulations that should return the situation to its original tracks. According to his order, the border guards are to strengthen the protection of the state border so that “mercenaries, weapons, ammunition or money to finance the riots” cannot enter Belarus from other countries. According to him, most of the protesters are paid, writes the Belta agency.
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The Ministry of Defense is to “pay special attention to the movement of NATO troops in Poland and Lithuania.” “We must follow the direction of their movement and their plans,” Lukashenko said. He places special emphasis on the city of Grodno, which is located in the west of the country, because “there is a great interest in destabilizing the situation here even more than in Minsk,” said the President of Belarus.
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The town hall in Grodno does not take his orders to heart, and the city leadership has already established a dialogue with the opposition. According to the DPA agency, the town hall published a ten-point text on the Internet entitled Response to Public Complaints. The text states that demonstrations are allowed and people who go on strike do not have to worry about sanctions. A new council is also to be set up, in which, in addition to representatives of the city, representatives of civil society will be able to sit. In this context, the DPA recalls that initiating a dialogue with the authorities is one of the main demands of the opposition.
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The Ministry of the Interior was ordered to “end the mess” and “protect the work teams from the street.” According to him, strikers should not get a chance to return to their previous job.
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But even the police did not retaliate. Although it dispersed the protests in Minsk during the day, law enforcement forces did not intervene against the evening demonstration. According to the Tut.by server, the protests also took place on Wednesday evening in Gomel, Mogilev, Bobrujsk and Grodno.
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There have been protests in Belarus since Sunday, August 9, when the results of the presidential election were announced, in which Alexander Lukashenko won again for the sixth time. People took to the streets to protest the falsification of election results and demand new elections.
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