During the past week, Belarus witnessed unprecedented political events that left many in shock. Many Belarussians, in Minsk and elsewhere, took to the streets to protest a massively rigged presidential election on August 9th, where the major opposition candidates were not represented because they had been imprisoned on fake charges several weeks before that. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition leader and the de-facto winner of the election, was forced to flee the country Tuesday night.
The police and the special forces were acting with a level of violence previously unheard of. Two protests fell victim to it: an unarmed man was shot in the chest in Minsk and died on the scene, and another man died upon arrest in Homiel. The whole country had little to no Internet access for four days in a row, which many blame on the country's security forces. However, this only brought more people to the streets. After several days of violent protests the police started to free the detainees, many of which were simple passers-by without any intention to take part in the protests. This turned out to be a new shock, with more and more detainees reporting absolute brutality, torture and severe beatings in police stations and prisons.
On Friday, perhaps surprisingly to many, the protesters were joined by factory workers in a massive strike, with more and more workers taking part all over Belarus. By that time the government had made its first move to start a dialogue with the protesters, however, claiming that they were being paid by the EU and Russian opposition leaders. The events culminated in a massive opposition rally in Minsk on Sunday afternoon, the biggest in country's history, with 100000 to 300000 people taking part. Today, the strike continues, and people expect to go out on protest later in the day. Alexander Lukashenko, who has been president for 26 years, paid a visit to one of the major factories and tried to speak to the workers but was rather negatively received.
This is a developing story.