"Crossed the red line." Lukashenko tightens repression against Maidan activists
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko cancels his order to security forces to “work carefully” with protesters in Minsk.
The Belarusian president announced this today at a meeting on the preparation of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, at which changes to the Constitution of Belarus should be approved, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“You remember that I said that we must work carefully, despite the fact that these protesters are hanging out in the streets. But this remaining mass has become radicalized. We clearly see the organizers and those who implement these ideas. And I said then that we were working carefully, since they had not yet crossed the red line. The last few days indicate that in many areas they have crossed this red line,” Lukashenko said.
He regards the actions of opposition activists as terrorism.
“Well, how can you evaluate something that has already entered the railway and is starting to block the automation and lock the rails. This can lead to serious railway accidents, disasters and the death of many people. These are the actions of organized criminal groups with signs of terrorism. Today they reported that several traffic lights in Minsk were cut. They break, crumble what has been created over the years. People are tired. The government is worth something if it knows how to defend itself and its people,” Lukashenko said.
Yesterday, the head of the investigative department of the KGB of Belarus, Konstantin Bychek, also qualified the actions of the protesters as acts of terrorism.
“By and large, the state has not yet seriously turned on the repressive skating rink, it is working in a gentle mode, but statements about terrorism are the first signal that it can change its approach,” warns political scientist Alexei Dzermant, close to the Belarusian authorities.
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