The protests in Belarus continue to gather momentum as citizens joined hundreds of thousands of people on an eight-day of protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, despite a violent crackdown that has prompted the West to consider new sanctions.
A former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko is grappling to contain the biggest challenge in years to his rule of the country seen by neighbouring Russia as a strategic buffer against NATO and the European Union.
The protesters accuse Lukashenko of rigging last Sunday’s presidential election to win a sixth term. The president, alleging a foreign-backed plot to destabilize the country, has dismissed the demonstrators as criminals and unemployed.
However, the citizens have deemed the protest a fight for justice, calling the just concluded elections ‘fraud-tainted’. The protest has now made history as the biggest protest in the history of Belarus.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has in solidarity told Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in a phone call on Sunday that Moscow stood ready to provide help in accordance with a collective military pact if necessary, the Kremlin said in a statement.
