Units of riot police, internal troops and other power structures of Belarus left the streets of Minsk, the cordon was removed from the streets, traffic on the main highways was restored, TASS reported on Wednesday, August 12.
The siloviki were brought into the Belarusian capital the day before in order to take control of the city center in order to prevent a repeat of mass protests of citizens dissatisfied with the results of the presidential elections in the country.
On Wednesday, due to the blocking of the city center by the security forces, all protests moved to the outskirts of Minsk. Serious clashes took place in the southwestern region of Malinovka, as well as in Uruchye in the northeast and Serebryanka in the south.
Reinforced police detachments were deployed there, which used flash grenades and rubber bullets to disperse people. Mobile Internet still didn’t work in the city. But cellular communication remained available.
Mass protests have been taking place in Belarus since August 9, on that day, presidential elections were held in the country. The current head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, according to the CEC, got 80.08% of the vote, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was supported by 10.09% of voters. Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters did not recognize the results of the vote.
After that, people who disagreed with the election results began to take to the streets. They are opposed by the security forces. In the clashes, there are casualties on both sides. There were also detentions of journalists, including those from Russia.