OPPOSITION REACTS TO RUSSIA-BELARUS PARLIAMENTARY SESSION.

On January 22 some 3,000 residents of Minsk–carrying signs reading “No to a Russian occupation” and “No to the Eurasian empire”–marched in the city center in support of Belarusan independence. The march was staged as an immediate response to the Minsk session of the Russia-Belarus Parliamentary Assembly (see the Monitor, January 22). “We oppose the Russian-Asiatic mafia, not the Russian worker or peasant,” speaker Aleh Trusau said. The keynote speaker, acting Popular Front Chairman Lyavon Barshchevsky, reported that the Front has collected more than 150,000 signatures on its appeal that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka resign this year on the expiration of his constitutional term of office.

The same day, the parliament of Poland issued a message of solidarity with the Belarusan opposition’s struggle for national sovereignty and democratization of the country. The former head of state of Belarus, Stanislau Shushkevich, expressed the Belarusan opposition’s gratitude for the message, while the Foreign Ministry protested against Poland’s “interference in the internal affairs of Belarus” (AP, January 22; PAP, January 23).

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