Russia offers ally in Belarus support as protests grow

Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered support to Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, who appealed to his neighbour for help after his claim of an election victory to extend his 26-year rule led to widespread protests and strikes that have been met with police brutality.
Russia is ready to provide assistance to “resolve the problems” that arose after Belarus’s vote a week ago, including under the countries’ collective security pact “if necessary,” the Kremlin said in a statement on Sunday after a second call between the leaders this weekend. They blamed the unrest in part on “foreign pressure.”
At a pro-regime rally on Independence Square in the capital, Minsk, on Sunday, Lukashenko denied any voting fraud and said there will be no repeat election. “I won’t let anyone give away the country, even if I’m dead,” he said.
The demonstrations against his claim of a landslide victory in the August 9 vote have spiraled into the largest ever seen in Belarus, fuelled by anger at the severity of the police crackdown, including accusations of torture and the deaths of at least two protesters.
The Kremlin was betting that Lukashenko would manage to extend his rule for a sixth term, with his harsh tactics leaving him isolated in the West and ever more dependent on Russia.
Some in the Kremlin fear Lukashenko could be forced from office, according to three people familiar with the situation, leaving Russia scrambling to maintain its special relationship with a vital buffer against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Others see his repression of opponents as counterproductive but likely to keep him in power at least for a while, said another person close to the Kremlin.
As Lukashenko’s addressed his supporters, opposition protesters were gathering at the hilltop World War II victory monument in the capital for an earlier planned demonstration, as well as in cities across the country, and nationwide strikes are set to resume on Monday.
“We see that the wall has crumbled,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the main opposition challenger, said in a statement on Sunday. “The horror and bloody massacre that the authorities staged on the streets of our cities should never be repeated. We are ready to talk with the authorities about how and when Lukashenko will step down as head of state.”
While Lukashenko pledged not to leave Belarus, some people around him have sounded out Kremlin contacts on the possibility of fleeing to Russia if they were deposed, two people in Moscow familiar with the conversations said before his address.
In Warsaw, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who met Lukashenko in February, said the vote wasn’t free or fair but didn’t answer questions about a new election or possible additional sanctions. The European Union rejected the election result and signalled it’s ready to impose sanctions on Belarus.
Sandwiched between Russia and three NATO members, Belarus remains a key, if troublesome, ally.