protests since last month's disputed presidential election it's an unprecedented challenge to lucas sankoh who has been in power for 26 years. a fresh show of determination and defiance thousands of women braved heavy security and an official warning to raise their voices against the government once more. they are demanding that president look at shank step down and that jailed opposition fakers be freed. after more than a month of protests this rally is just the latest evidence put by the ruffians are not going to accept. those he pulled me out of i don't know how many times i've been out here you just can't sit back and watch what's going on but if you don't come out today tomorrow your children will live as slaves and i'm a mother by how children. but i was with previous demonstrations this one took a violent term shortly after the rally began scuffles broke out between protesters and riot police in the capital's freedom square masked men could be seen aggressively confronting demonstrators ultimately making dozens of arrests. but they're grabbing everyone in sight do they think they ca

lukashenko who won a 6th term last month in an election protesters and outside observers say was rigged lucas sankoh has accused foreign states of stirring up the protests and is threatening to close his country's western borders. romany's scenes near the polish border russia and belarus conducting joint military exercises according to other xander look i shan't go neighboring poland and lithuania are on the verge of starting a war he's threatening to close the borders. but at the moment. we are forced to withdraw troops from the streets the army on high alert for going to and close our western borders primarily with lithuania and poland. up with the piers of civil suit if we were forced to strengthen our borders when those students were suited to go through dawson moved on youthful. poland is considering sanctions against the rules the lithuanian foreign minister sees lucas and goes moves as pure desperation . going i mean this is truly unnerving in the sense that this is an inadequate reaction to the situation by an inadequate person as the only thing one can say all assessments and comments lead

of independent states well let me remind you that despite avoiding the worst case scenario mr lucas sankoh did manage to somehow calm the situation down and of void a nationwide strike and a full scale revolution still protests are ongoing every weekend there are hundreds of thousands of people that take to the streets in different cities of belarus. and i can tell you that only this sunday hundreds of people were detained as a result of this. particular meeting with the board on. board. if we take a step back how are the overall relations between valorous and russia it's important to look into the past a little bit as a result of the collapse of the soviet union still minsk maintained a very close ties with russia a number of agreements were signed to form a so-called union state to somehow follow in the footsteps of the european union in terms of how the countries get along with each other there and during all these years moscow has been a form supporter of further integration deeper steps towards each other however lately especially before the election alexander lukashenko made a very b

there are also things it's all about within the commonwealth of independent states now despite mr lucas sankoh being able to avoid the worst case scenario for him a complete nationwide strike and a full scale revolution protesters keep gathering in various cities across bellerive every week and sunday saw massive marches all across the country and which hundreds of people were detained. but if you take a step back how are the overall relations between valorous and russia well we do have to put all of this and contacts and it used to go without saying that men's is a top ally for moscow we remember that after the fall of the soviet union a number of agreements were signed between moscow and meant to form a so-called union state and moscow for all these years has been supporting deeper integration deeper ties however when it comes to president alexander lukashenko judging by his rhetoric before. the election in august especially we were able to understand that he's unhappy with how it was going in many ways and at some point he even called some russian official traitors but it seems now that he'

we all understand what has happened it was an attempt by lucas sankoh to call himself a legitimate leader which only means that his previous mandate has ended and the country has not given him a new one at that was a bomb in the garage for now protesters and lucas shango continue to fight for their differing versions of the future of belarus. data connelly is in minsk forest nick nice to see you were up those protests yesterday what was your impression. well extraordinary scenes yesterday kind of pitched battles and then people just spread across the whole city as soon as the police came to take 101520 people away in one of those police vans that become so characteristic convince. more people out in the streets the police force to come back time and time again just to try to block streets people who. think their horns we saw a new level of violence this is the kind of violence we haven't seen here since that rigged election in early august people just really angry i think there was a sense of disbelief at those images of the inauguration no one could quite believe that he was doing this f

some of the rhetoric by the by the russian president cracks began to appear in that union then mr lucas sankoh made a u. turn so now it looks like this alliance is becoming more promising we do remember that there were a number of impressive joint projects between the 2 countries including a nuclear power plant that is almost completely then also off i do have to say that minsk is heavily reliant on moscow when it comes to financial support and look at angle will probably be looking forward to some of the russian debt being restructured and also some kind of discounts for commodities but in return perhaps what moscow will be seeking is further and stronger integration because this is what the russian. government has been keen to do with bell rose for a while now in turn this led to speculation and the western media that the russian government could be allegedly using this as a chance to put extra pressure on. the bell russian president who finds himself in a weaker position right now although when the kremlin spokesperson. was asked about it he said this he ruled that out completely. there wil

unrest has been simmering for almost 7 weeks now since the disputed election with people calling on lucas sankoh to resign now there have also been other counter rallies in support of the president rival groups past each other on the streets look at those opponents carrying the red and white flag and government supporters with the official red and green flag artie's correspondent but i've got to say it has been following the unrest and of the police response for out the day. very tense now police have just fired water cannon behind us they're still firing what the cabin there's a line of policeman now trying to remove the demonstrators from a central square here in minsk hundreds of people 2 perhaps a few 1000 gathered just behind me and literally a few minutes ago police began pressing in on them we saw a number of people detained at the season unsanctioned rally the government had ruled that this isn't an unsanctioned rally they had cooled on the demonstrators to disperse but passions are high here there's there's there's a lot of anger among the protesters many of them refused to leave and no

opposition is arrested on the border with ukraine but it may differing versions of events president lucas sankoh shares his understanding of what happened in an interview with russian journalists. british government's handling of the tondo making calls to many state health service doctors to consider quitting according to a new poll and. the record breaking of the year.

50th day of protests since the disputed presidential election in august that lucas hankers opponents say was ringed lucan sankoh denies electoral fraud and was inaugurated on wednesday in a ceremony held without any prior announcement. still no end to the stalemate but these massive protests just won't stop either the demonstrators are determined to oust alexander lukashenko who last week swore himself in for a 6th term in office on sunday they mocked the man they believe is clinging to the throne. was feel like god. and that's why he made the race if he did not ride again. opposition leaders that planted to kind of scalia dubbed sunday's protest the people's inauguration protestors came bearing her portrait they believe she not look as shank 01 august disputed presidential election. and today we're celebrating. i don't know always will be 2nd in your list but you know gratian all our presidents stephanus for most here. 50 days of protest but there's no sign the question goes government is about to go and it is still trying to push the people off the streets. in gomel and other cities peaceful protesters again

since the disputed presidential election in august that lucas thank those opponents and much of the international community say was raked look sankoh denies electoral fraud and was inaugurated on wednesday in unannounced ceremony. still no end to the stalemate but these massive protests just won't stop either the demonstrators are determined to oust alexander look at shank 0 who last week swore himself in for a 6th term in office on sunday they mocked the man they believe is clinging to the throne. was me feel like. they're here. and that's why he made his secret race if he did not ride it again. opposition leaders that plan that to kind of skya dubbed sunday's protest the people's inauguration protestors came bearing her portrait they believe she not look as shank 0 1 august disputed presidential election. and today we're celebrating i don't know always will be sick in your lives but you know the ration of our presidents step on the channels here. 50 days of protest but there's no sign the question goes government is about to go and it is still trying to push the people off the streets. in gomel and other cities peaceful protester