Belarus
Sunday 24 January 2021
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“The issue is, I quote, Belarusian land belonging to Poland. That is already declared openly.”
Dogged by protests since his disputed re-election last summer, the Belarus autocrat is shifting blame to outsiders. -
“Almost 30 protest activities took place in Belarus on Sunday, the overall number of protesters did not exceed 22,000, Interior Ministry Spokesperson Olga Chemodanova said in a statement on Telegram.”
An estimated 150,000 marched in Minsk for Sunday’s “March of Heroes.” Multiple media outlets including Russia's Interfax cited this estimate. -
“The day before, non-apathetic Belarusians who are against interference in the internal affairs of our state, against fakes and the fragmenting of society, gathered in Minsk’s Victory Square.”
One of the demonstrators interviewed on camera is a Russian citizen running for office in Moscow city. This was not disclosed in the segment. -
“The members of the so-called coordination council, Anton Rodnenkov, Ivan Kravtsov and Maria Kolesnikova, tried to leave the territory of Belarus.”
The opposition leaders maintain they were forcibly taken to the Ukraine border. Kolesnikova had been abducted off the street the previous day. -
"There would be convulsions and so on. Completely different symptoms."
The nerve agent Novichok sickened but did not kill ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018, either. Their symptoms were like Alexey Navalny’s. -
“There were American F-16s near Berlin, well, let them stand there. No, they moved them here – 15-20 minutes flying time to our territory. … It is not clear what they were carrying. Maybe nuclear weapons."
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“We cannot calmly watch how, under the flags under which the fascists organized the massacres of Belarusians, Russians, Jews, [and] representatives of other nationalities, actions are being organized today in these sacred places. We cannot allow this!”
The Belarusian white-red-white tricolor flag has a long history and was first adopted by the Belarusian People’s Republic in 1918. It was again adopted as the national flag in 1991-1995. -
“Truly he died, tragically. And the main stupidity is that this Belarusian tried to throw an explosive device at the OMON (riot police), and this very explosive device detonated right in his hand. That is, he accidentally killed himself.”
Video of the incident shows the protester’s hands were empty. No detonation was visible. -
“It is a clear triumph that expresses the loyalty of the Belarusian people to their national sovereignty to guarantee their integral development, prosperity, and maintenance of peace and security.”
Maduro’s statement overlooks the fact that Lukashenko won after jailing opponents and suppressing opposition protests. Unrest continues in Belarus. -
“We have never denied that coronavirus existed. This is the way mass media has presented it. How can we deny what is really here?”
Lukashenko downplayed the risks of COVID-19 multiple times in the run-up to his rigged re-election victory Sunday. -
“All that about Istanbul, Venezuela, Africa, Libya is lies. These people (they have confessed) were sent specifically to Belarus. Their orders were to wait. They had tickets purchased [to fly] to Istanbul but that was their cover story.”
Lukashenko has offered flimsy evidence for the arrests of Russian mercenaries in an alleged plot to disrupt presidential voting. -
“The BBC, Radio Free Europe, and so on. Those web streams … They go beyond biased reporting. They call for mass riots.”
Neither news organization has called for riots. Media bias monitors rate both outlets as neutral and reliable.