Youths in Moscow stage demonstration in support of anti-Lukashenko opposition :: Charter'97 :: News

A demonstration in support of Belarus` opposition was staged near the Belarusian embassy in Moscow on April 25 on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Participating in the demonstration were about 50 people including members of the youth wing of the Union of Right Forces, representatives of the Defense youth movement and Belarusian opposition activists, according to the Echo of Moscow radio station.

On completion of the demonstration, participants reportedly handed an embassy official a sack of potatoes and asked him to pass it to President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Members of the youth wing of the Union of Right Forces and the Going without Putin movement will attend Belarusian opposition groups` events to be held in Minsk on April 26 in commemoration of the Chernobyl disaster, said the press office of the United Civic Party (UCP).

"Russian youths have participated in the Charnobylski Shlyakh [Path of Chernobyl] demonstration for many years and many know by their own experience how closely the [Belarusian] law-enforcement agencies usually followed their visit to Belarus. That is why some part of the delegation arrived in Minsk the day before April 26," the press office said.

Among members of the delegation is Yuliya Malysheva, deputy head of the Moscow organization of the youth wing of the Union of Right Forces and a member of a Moscow municipal assembly.

"In the run-up of Belarus` parliamentary elections and referendum in 2004, Yuliya Malysheva was among the organizers of a protest at the center of Moscow, during which 50 activists brought a dummy of Lukashenko to the Belarusian embassy. Malysheva was then arrested and held at a police station for an entire day. An administrative charge was brought against her," the UCP press office said.