'Professionalism': Russian envoy approves of March 25 crackdown on protesters in Minsk

Russian envoy Alexander Surikov, photo by Syarhei Satsyuk, BelaPAN

Alexander Surikov, Ambassador of Russia to Belarus, approves the police’s dispersal of protesters on Belarus’s unofficial Freedom Day, he said at Thursday’s press conference in Minsk.

It is not necessary to listen to public opinion expressed by people who take to the streets, he believes.

“Revolutions occur and people suffer,” Surikov said. In his opinion, if there is a risk that something bad will happen during a march or rally, the authorities are quite right when acting in such a way.

“I fully agree with the [Belarusian] authorities and the professionalism, because they prevented the march from being held and wiped out the risk of accidental blow. People could have been affected,” he stresses.

Meanwhile, the EU, other countries and international organizations made formal statements demanding the release of detained peaceful protesters during ‘non-parasite’ rallies in Belarus.

Protests in Minsk on March, 25 (ENG video)

On March 25, the Minsk riot police brutally dispersed the protest against the so-called tax on ‘spongers’ introduced by president Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 2015. Even women, elderly people, journalists and ordinary passers-by – were arrested, battered and jailed. It is noteworthy that the protesters also planned a peaceful celebration of Freedom Day. It is an unofficial holiday commemorating the establishment of the first Belarusian nation-state, the Belarusian People’s Republic, on March 25, 1918.

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