Belarus

MINSK, October 10. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met on Saturday with the former nominee for a presidential candidate Viktor Babariko and other jailed opposition representatives to discuss the constitution reform, BelTA news agency said citing the Telegram channel Pool of the First with links to the presidential press service.

"A constitution cannot be written in the street," Lukashenko said.

Kyiv, Oct 5 (AP/PTI) More than 100,000 people marched in Belarus' capital on Sunday to protest against the country's authoritarian leader, who won his sixth term in office in an election widely seen as rigged.

The demonstrators demanded the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko, and freedom for political prisoners.

Police used water cannons in an attempt to disperse the crowds, but the protesters remained undeterred.

(Reuters) - Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Lithuania on Tuesday, Tsikhanouskaya’s official channel in the Telegram messaging app reported.

Tsikhanouskaya planned to discuss international mediation in the political standoff prompted by the August presidential election in Belarus, her channel said.

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian security forces detained dozens of protesters on Saturday as crowds rallied in central Minsk accusing President Alexander Lukashenko of rigging last month’s election.

One group of women chanted “Our president is Sveta!” - referring to opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya who they say won the vote - before riot police dragged many of them into vans. Other protesters were arrested nearby.

MINSK, September 22. /TASS/: The Belarusian opposition has embarked on cobbling together a new electoral code and amendments to the nation’s constitution, according to a report on Tuesday, on its Telegram channel known as "A Country for Life."

"Anatoly Lebedko, CEO of the ‘European Dialogue’ center, in agreement with [former presidential candidate] Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters, is launching an initiative to forge a new version of the Electoral Code and amend the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus," the report says.

MINSK, September 21. /TASS/: Belarus will not carry out any across-the-board privatization campaigns just to please ‘swindlers’ from overseas, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday, as quoted by the BelTA news agency.

According to the report, the president "claimed that Belarus will not privatize anything and everything just to ‘satisfy swindlers from abroad’."

(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched through Minsk on Sunday chanting “go away” on the sixth straight weekend of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, keeping up the pressure on the veteran Belarusian leader to quit.

At least 10 people were detained, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted police as saying.

Videos shared by local media outlets showed security forces in helmets or masks hauling protesters off the streets.

MINSK, September 18. /TASS/: Belarusian human rights activists say they have collected more than 500 testimonies by detained protest demonstrators who complained of torture.

"At the moment the human rights center Vyasna has collected more than 500 testimonies by victims of torture. Human rights activists are in the process of classifying them and writing a report," the human rights center said on its website.

The center says the Investigative Committee has received about 1,200 grievances from people who complained about "moral and psychological pressure."

MINSK, September 17. /TASS/: Servicemen participating in the "Slavic Brotherhood 2020" military drills near Belarus’s Brest performed a number of firing tasks during the initial stage of the exercise, Belarusian Defense Ministry announced Thursday.

"The airborne troops of both countries crossed a water obstacle and performed a number of firing tasks using D-30 howitzers, guided anti-tank missiles and mortars. Russian Guardsmen supported their Belarusian colleagues with 2S-9 Nona-S 120mm self-propelled artillery," the ministry disclosed.

MINSK, September 16. /TASS/: Russia’s decision to allocate a $1.5-billion loan to Belarus won’t save the country’s economy, member of the presidium of the Belarusian Coordination Council Pavel Latushko said.