Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting with his brand-new safety principals on Friday adhering to a reshuffle as he seeks to tighten his grasp on power after months of extraordinary protests.
The ex-Soviet country has experienced substantial demos since the 66-year-old strongman asserted a landslide triumph in an August governmental political election that challengers claim was rigged.
On Thursday, Lukashenko changed his indoor preacher and also closed land boundaries with EU participants Poland, Lithuania as well as Latvia as well as Ukraine, citing the coronavirus pandemic.
He additionally assigned a brand-new police principal for the resources Minsk on Friday.
At a conference with newly-appointed Interior Minister Ivan Kubrakov and Minsk police primary Mikhail Grib, Lukashenko claimed the “stability and health” of Belarusians relied on the efficiency of their work.
Kubrakov, 45, changed Yuri Karayev, that commanded a brutal post-election suppression on militants which saw a number of people die and also thousands jailed.
On Thursday, Lukashenko’s political election rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a political amateur who claims to be the real winner of the August political election, defined the reshuffle as an indicator that his “power is weakening.”
” He is making these inconsistent choices since he remains in a panic,” Tikhanovksaya, who remains in exile in Lithuania, said on her Telegram channel.
Karayev as well as two various other officials with a military background were selected governmental aides to components of the nation that Lukashenko described as “particularly dangerous.”
The aides were sent out to Minsk, the western city of Grodno and also the southwestern city of Brest which have actually seen several of the biggest objections in recent weeks.
10s of countless people have actually been requiring to the roads every Sunday in objection at Lukashenko’s 26-year regulation.
Lukashenko on Thursday recommended establishing volunteer teams from previous servicemen and also offering them with tools to make sure order.
” They can help us a whole lot,” he stated.
Tikhanovskaya had provided Lukashenko till Oct. 25 to give up, halt violence against protesters and launch political prisoners.
On Monday, the opposition announced a strike while the authorities arrested almost 600 individuals. Pupils joined the industrial activity by starting sit-in objections at their colleges.
Numerous trainees at a Minsk university have been expelled over their participation, Tut.by, an independent information site, reported on Friday.
The political situation in Belarus appears at an impasse, with the Moscow-backed Lukashenko declining to go and the resistance incapable to compel his ouster.