'Valentine's Day protests' in Moscow and Minsk

In Russia, flash mobs with lights demanded the release of Alexei Naval'nyj. In Belarus, individuals or small groups wave the white-red-white flag. The People’s Assembly for the Reform of the Constitution in Minsk. But none of the opposition is present. Kirill Galanov and Vlad Sokolovskij, known as the "Djs of change", sent to Lithuania.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - "Valentine's Day protests" took place yesterday in Moscow and Minsk, amid growing pressure to demand freedom from their respective governments.

In Russia the demonstrations are aimed in particular at the liberation of Alexei Naval'nyj, and were organized in "affectionate" forms.

In Minsk, flying balloons with slogans for freedom were released throughout the city, and in Moscow the flash mob of lanterns, pulsating lights of protest and support for the imprisoned leader took place (photo 1).

The most popular slogan in the two capitals was "love is stronger than torture" (photo 2). Many people went out on the street individually or in small groups, displaying writings and showing the white-red-white flag of Free Belarus (photo 3).

Even abroad, many Russians and Belarusians took to the streets to protest. In the Russian-Tatar city of Kazan, the only demonstration agreed with the local authorities, organized by the liberal Yabloko party, was organized under the title "Against arrests and repression and for the change of the electoral law in the Duma".

Several hundred people arrived at the meeting in the Millennium Square of the Tatar capital, but after the first 150 people the others were stopped by the police, because "the number exceeded the agreements made".

Meanwhile, the "Pan-Belarusian" People’s Assembly, made up of about 2400 members, convened on February 12 by President Aleksandr Lukashenko, ended in recent days. It was supposed to prepare the constitutional reform, on which citizens should be consulted in a referendum at the beginning of 2022. The special constitutional commission, whose establishment was approved by the Assembly, will soon begin work on the changes.

The commission will include representatives of state bodies, the judiciary, various sectors of the economy and society. Proposals include the "redistribution of competences among the organs of the State, the strengthening of the role of political parties, the support of spontaneous initiatives of civil society, the development of patriotic education programs for the population and the affirmation of traditional moral and spiritual values, and of the customs of the Belarusian people”.

The People's Assembly itself should become a stable superior body representing the people, with a particular legal status to be included in the legislation. It currently is an advisory body, delegated to submit proposals to the country's president within a week. This is not new to the recent history of Belarus: at the end of the 1990s it was precisely the popular delegates who put forward the referendum proposal, which led to the strengthening of presidential powers.

Now, however, Lukashenko says he is in favour of a revision of the division of powers, because "all these competences, which now belong to the head of state, are too heavy for a single person ... and if one of the fugitives, street Protestors, seizes power or those who are in prison or others, the new leader could invite foreign armies to invade us”. The president also declared that he was "ready to defend the country with a rifle in his arms".

The opposition is not represented at all in the People's Assembly. One of its representatives, Pavel Latushko, declared that "this is an unconstitutional rally”. He called for "the restoration of normal democratic institutions, which are currently inhibited in Belarus" for any return to normality.

While the Assembly met, all the central streets of Minsk were sealed and subjected to extensive checks by the forces of law and order, and the media were also placed under observation.

On February 13, the video of the arrest last August of Kirill Galanov and Vlad Sokolovskij, known as the "Djs of change" (photo 4) for having given extensive airtime to the famous song by Viktor Tsoj Peremen, ("Changes"), was released.

The song was a symbol of the 1990 Russian revolt against the dying Soviet regime, which later became the symbolic song of the Belarusian protests. After a few days of detention, the two Djs were brought out of the country, and they too are part of the "exiled" opposition in Lithuania.