Russian media journalists covering the opposition rally on Svoboda Square in Minsk were taken by police to the local police department. It was reported by RIA Novosti on Sunday, November 8.
Soon after the check, the media employees were released from the police. Law enforcers approached the journalists in the area of ​​Svoboda Square, where pinpoint detentions of opposition supporters who were gathering for a protest march were carried out. They checked the journalists’ accreditations giving them the right to work in Belarus, and offered to get into the minibus. Gadgets and personal belongings were seized from journalists.
In the Partizanskiy district police department, the correspondents’ documents were checked again and released. Among the detained were employees of TASS and MIA “Russia Today”
Earlier, on Sunday, about 10 participants of the unauthorized action were taken to the police. Before the start of the opposition rally in the center of Minsk, the authorities of the Belarusian capital closed nine metro stations.
Special equipment, buses and trucks with security forces have been pulled into different districts of the Belarusian capital. Law enforcers will control the central squares of the city and the area of ​​the Palace of Independence in Minsk.
On the eve of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko promised to adopt the new Constitution of Belarus “without breakdowns and disasters.”
Massive protests have been going on in the republic since August 9, when the presidential elections were held. According to the CEC, Alexander Lukashenko won for the sixth time in a row, but the opposition and its supporters did not agree with the official data.
On October 26, the opposition announced an open-ended strike in the country.