Syarhei Tsikhanouski

On May 9, 2020, dozens of supporters of Syarhei Tsikhanouski held an "Anti-parade" in Babruisk to express their disagreement with the Victory Day Parade in Minsk during the COVID-19 pandemic. The protest parade took the form of a protest motor rally. Police detained about 15 people after the motor rally.[8][9] Syarhei Tsikhanouski was in detention in that moment.

On May 7, Syarhei Tsikhanouski announced on his YouTube channel "Country for Life" that he intends to become a candidate for President of Belarus.[10][11] Prior to this event, on May 6, he was detained by the Belarusian militsyya (police) in the vicinity of Mahilyow without presenting a certificate by a police officer (confirming the status of a policeman in Belarus) and with threats of police breaking the glass of the car in which Tsikhanouski was in.[12] Prior to that, a crowd of Tsikhanouski's supporters in Mahilyow released a member of Tsikhanouski's team from the police.[13] A day later, allies of Tsikhanouski were arrested, including a blogger from Slutsk, Uladzimier Niaronski.[14] The vans of Tsikhanouski's team including Niaronski was chased by a road police and two vans with members of the police special forces AMAP.[15]

The blogger's arrest was facilitated by his trip around Belarus, covering the consequences of Lukashenka’s 26-year stay at the head of the country. Tsikhanouski’s trips were popular and gathered hundreds of people who spoke out to Tsikhanouski about violations of their rights and economic problems. On trips around Belarus, Siarhei Tsikhanouski was constantly followed by cars with people monitoring him, presumably employees of the Belarusian special services.[16]

After the arrests, Siarhei Tsikhanouski’s supporters held a series of protests throughout Belarus. According to the Radio Liberty, 20 to 30 people were detained in Homyel, the home town of Tsikhanouski.[14] Viasna Human Rights Centre reports that at least 19 people who supported Tsikhanouski were brutally detained in Minsk.[14]

20 hours after the publication of the video about the intention of Tsikhanouski to become a presidential candidate, the video scored 250 thousand views on YouTube. The channel of Syarhei Tsikhanouski "Country for Life" had 163 thousand subscribers as of May 8, 2020.[17]

After his arrest, Syarhei Tsikhanouski was transported to Homyel, where he was placed in a temporary detention center. Formal reason for detention of Tsikhanouski' was his participation in the rally against the integration of Belarus with Russia that was on December 19, 2019 in Minsk. After his detention, Tsikhanouski announced in his YouTube channel about his intention to run for president of Belarus. However, the Central Election Commission of Belarus refused to register the initiative group to nominate him.[18][19]

Then a spouse of Syarhei Tsikhanouski, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, decided to run herself as a nominee for the presidential candidate status. The initiative group of Svyatlana Tikhanouskaya was successfully registered by the Central Election Commission of Belarus.[20] Syarhei Tsikhanouski became the head of the initiative group to collect signatures for Svyatlana Tikhanouskaya's participation in the presidential election.

On 20 May, Syarhei Tsikhanouski was released from the temporary detention center.[21][22] Tsikhanouski explained that the pressure of activists-supporters helped to achieve that. In an interview with Tsikhanouski after the release, Deutsche Welle drew parallels between the Belarusian blogger and Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and the Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelensky, who became the president of Ukraine.[23] RTVI also drew a parallel between Tsikhanouski and Navalny.[24]

Syarhei Tsikhanouski began his trips around the country with pickets to collect signatures for Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Tsikhanouski's pickets were very popular and gathered thousands of people. The queue to the picket in Minsk near Kamarouski market was half a mile. Several thousand people also attended the picket of Tsikhanouski in Homyel. Syarhei Tsikhanouski announced that he was collecting signatures for fair elections in Belarus, without falsifications.

Syarhei Tsikhanouski actively uses the slogan "Stop, cockroach!" in his campaign, which is chanted by his supporters. The symbol of the Tsikhanouski's campaign is slipper. The slogan "Stop, cockroach!" refers to the fairy tale "Cockroach" by Soviet poet Kornei Chukovsky about how the "mustached cockroach" intimidated all animals and became their ruler. Apparently, this slogan is a reference to the current leadership of Belarus. Slippers are supposedly a traditional means of pest control.[25] Euronews journalists called the events in Belarus as "Slippers Revolution" demonstrating the quote of the Belarusian activist Franak Viachorka with this phrase.[26]

On 29 May, Syarhei Tsikhanouski came to Hrodna to take part in the process of collecting signatures for Svyatlana Tikhanouskaya. On the same day, the head of Belarus Aliaksandar Lukashenka probably spoke about Syarhei Tsikhanouski at a meeting with workers of Minsk Tractor Works: "They come cool, all in jeeps — 10-12 cars... we know whose cars he drives, who finances it. We know where he comes from, what his citizenship is and stuff... We all know that. I'm already looking, they're giving me information, our people have already seen it.".[27] Tsikhanouski commented on Lukashenka's statement to the Nasha Niva newspaper: "My last name isn't there, but a hint of me: "We know his citizenship." They have information, analytical work! I have one citizenship, I never had any other. In terms of money — I've had business since 2005, I have money.".[28]

A few hours after Lukashenka's statement, during the communication of Syarhei Tsikhanouski with the residents of Hrodna, there was a provocation, during which a policeman was lying on the asphalt whistling on the pavement not far from the place of Tsikhanouski's communication with the residents. After one minute and thirteen seconds, Tsikhanouski was detained by a special forces of the Belarusian police AMAP.[29] Eight vans of the special police unit arrived to detain Tsikhanouski.[30] The soldiers of the special unit loaded Tsikhanouski into the police GAZelle van without showing their IDs. During the arrest, the GAZelle's door was broken down. Supporters of the blogger tried to block the departure of vans from the place of Tsikhanouski's detention. Unidentified people in sports suits then freed the passage for police transport in struggle with Tsikhanouski supporters.[30] Then supporters of the blogger went to the police station in Hrodna with request to release the blogger.[31][32]

Shortly after the arrest of the blogger, the Belarusian state-owned TV channel Belarus 1 showed a story in which the events in Hrodna were covered as follows: "From the very first minutes this collection of signatures turned into a rally, and according to the law, it is prohibited to hold a campaign meeting at this stage of the election campaign. As a result, this manner of communication turned into a scuffle. The police, trying to restore order, found themselves in the epicenter of the scuffle, which was arranged on the square. One of the police officers was attacked.".[33][34] The leader of the United Civil Party, retired lieutenant colonel of the Belarusian police, Mikalai Kazlou, noted that Aliaksandar Lukashenka, during his speech at Minsk Tractor Plant, "gave the command to screw, twist, sit down, and the minister apparently immediately seized this opportunity and made a provocation". Kazlou also noted that all the policemen involved in this provocation would be exposed and brought to justice.[35]

According to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at least 13 people were detained, including two members of the initiative group Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya and three assistants of Syarhei Tsikhanouski. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus announced that investigators had opened a criminal case for violence against police officers.[36]

Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a candidate for the presidency, made an official statement regarding the detention of her husband and the head of the headquarters of her initiative group, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, in Hrodna: "I officially declare: Today, May 29th, during a picket in Hrodna in support of my candidacy for presidency there was a "dirty" provocation against Syarhei Leanidavich Tsikhanouski, head of the headquarters of my initiative group. He was detained. I declare responsibly that the picket was legal and peaceful in nature. In this connection, I demand immediate release of the head of my initiative group, otherwise I will regard it as a violation of my constitutional rights and pressure on the candidate for presidency of Belarus". She promised to submit relevant applications to the CEC and the Interior Ministry.[37]