BELARUSAN OPPOSITION DEMONSTRATION: PATRIOTIC AND IMPISH.

Some 5,000, mainly young people carrying banned national symbols demonstrated in the Belarusan capital on March 2 to mark the 930th anniversary of the city of Minsk and its first Christian church building. The Popular Front staged the event to raise public awareness of Belarus’ own, non-Russian historic traditions and legacy of statehood, said PF co-chairman Lyavon Barshchevsky. PF order squads prevented the police from breaking up a satirical theatrical show in Opera Square, lampooning "Tsar Alyaksashka" — i.e. President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Only two days earlier Lukashenko had appealed to the youth to support an official, Komsomol-type organization. (Belapan, Interfax, RTV, March 2)

Moldova Offers Russia a "Mini-Dayton."