Psychosis, as it was said: The Belarusian authorities and the opposition are preparing for Maidan Square
On the eve of the main voting day (early voting starts on Tuesday), turbulence has intensified around the Belarusian opposition female triumvirate: presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of the unregistered candidate who fled to Russia, Veronika Tsepkalo, and the head of staff of another unregistered candidate, Viktor Babariko, who is sitting in a pre-trial detention center, Maria Kolesnikova.
First, state media dispelled the fake news that Tsepkalo fled to Russia after her husband. This was done according to an already established scheme through reprinting posts of little-known channels in the official Telegram of state TV channels.
Next came confirmed information. The head of Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters, nationalist Maria Moroz, was detained and placed in the Center for Isolation of Offenders. This is her second arrest in the past week. This time the woman will be kept in a cell until Monday, according to the official version - to participate in the administrative process.
Immediately after this, the Sputnik agency reported that Tikhanovskaya left her apartment for safety reasons. She plans to spend one night “in Razliv” and will appear at the polling station tomorrow.
Finally, very late in the evening, an urgent message came about the detention of the third member of the “female triumvirate,” Maria Kolesnikova. The police officers took her out of the car at the exit of the parking lot and took her away in an unknown direction. Half an hour later the woman was released (the opposition was already gathering a picket outside the Ministry of Internal Affairs). It turned out that she was detained “by mistake.” It is unclear who such a popular person in recent days could be confused with.
All this is accompanied by an alarming media campaign about impending destabilization and sabotage by external forces. The central streets of Minsk are periodically blocked, and now they have begun to erect iron fences in areas suitable for a hypothetical Maidan.
Thus, the authorities are whipping up nervousness in society no less, and perhaps even more, than the opposition. But the opposition is also trying.
On the day of silence, the streets are filled with car horns, from which the song “Change!” is heard. Tsoi. Drivers wave from their windows and are greeted, obviously, by non-random pedestrians.
Random arrests began. It is difficult to understand how widespread they are, but footage of people roughly stuffed into beads is being circulated on social networks.
And the day before, the arrests of cyclists were repeated (riding bicycles and clapping your hands in Belarus is a well-established form of unauthorized protest).
The first heroes of the revolution that had not yet begun appeared. They were two DJs who played the forbidden song “Change” at an event of out-of-school education organizations. Both have already received ten days. The head of the district personally tore the cables out of the speakers.
Let's add to all this already opposition rumors about the impending introduction of a state of emergency and shutdown of the Internet.
Amid all this hysteria, the opposition continues to call people on Sunday evening in the square to “celebrate victory.”
Then it will become clear how Belarusians will react to this two-sided psychic attack: they will get scared and stay at home, or they will go to the square for change.
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