MINSK, Belarus — Anti-government protesters took to the streets of the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Sunday, marking the 15th day of the Belarusian political crisis in the wake of the blatant falsification of presidential election results in favor of the country’s long-term authoritarian president, Aleksandr Lukashenko. Despite dramatic government threats against protesters, the imposition of travel barriers inside and around the capital, and predictions of rain, the opposition resoundingly disproved fears that the protest movement had begun to lose steam and momentum.
By putting around 200,000 people, perhaps more, on the streets, the opposition ignored the progressively more histrionic threats that had been emanating from Lukashenko and his security forces. Earlier in the weekend, Lukashenko ordered a full mobilization of the Belarusian military and denounced an imminent NATO invasion on the Lithuanian border, even as generals openly discussed the possibility of civil war.
