LUKASHENKO CLAIMS ALIENS FOMENTING UNREST IN BELARUS

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed on Saturday, August 15, 2020, that protests in the country are orchestrated from abroad and involve criminal elements.

"Today we can see absolutely clearly what is happening," the Belarus news agency BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying. "Today we can see the actors. As we said before, the instigators and organizers of all these are people from abroad. In the first ranks there are people with a criminal past - mind you, with a significant criminal past. And then there are our people - kids and not kids anymore."

However, a United Nations (UN) expert doused cold water on Lukashenko’s claim and said the Belarus protests are not stoked from overseas. “It is better to minimize comparisons between the current crisis in Belarus and Ukraine’s Euromaidan because Belarusians want to avoid foreign interference and a civil war,” UN Special Rapporteur on the situation with human rights in Belarus Anais Marin said in an interview with the Russian news agency TASS.

"Now it is important to minimize as much as possible parallels with Ukraine and Maidan. The Belarusian path could be unique, scenarios could be totally different, because everything that is happening now is between the Belarusians themselves and their president, without foreign interference," she noted.