National Bolshevik Paliakou detained in Minsk

Aliaksandr Paliakou, an activist of the National Bolshevik movement, has been detained in Minsk.

Aliaksandr Paliakou was detained on May 6 as he was leaving his home and taken to Minsk's Zavadski district police department, BelaPAN informs.

It was reported some hours earlier that national Bolsheviks Dzmitry Paliyenka, Dzianis Sakhar and Yauhen Kontush were ordered to visit a police station. “Policemen and unknown men in civilian clothes are waiting outside their flats. They buzz on the intercom and ring the doorbell from time to time saying that the activists should go to the police station,” the movement's press service reports.

National Bolsheviks held a protest in Minsk on May 4 on the occasion of the forthcoming of the ice hockey world championship. They raised the banner with Lukashenka's portrait “You cannot jail everyone”near the main entrance to Chelyuskintsy Park. The activists handed out leaflets in the park explaining the meaning of their protest.

“The aim of the protest is to draw attention of citizens to the crackdown on public activists and oppositionists in Belarus. The current situation in the country vividly shows that the authorities are ready to sacrifice rights and freedoms of citizens for the sake of a glossy cover, comfort of foreign citizens and personal whims of Lukashenka. While prices are growing, and salaries remain the same, Lukashenka goes on playing his favourite game, for which the Belarusian nation is already paying the price, and activists are the first to pay. We strongly oppose the Belarusian repressive machine of the establishment and justice, and we demand to stop persecution of public activists on political grounds,” the activists said.