MINSK, Belarus — Minutes after President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus vowed to stand firm against protesters he reviled as “rats,” “trash” and “bandits,” antigovernment demonstrators staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday to oppose a fraud-tainted presidential election a week earlier. Tens of thousands of protesters — some estimates put their number at well over 100,000 — turned out in the center of Minsk, the capital, dwarfing a rally of Mr. Lukashenko’s supporters earlier in the day. It appeared to be the largest protest in the history of Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Mr. Lukashenko has ruled since 1994. As the crowd gathered around a Soviet-era obelisk on Victors Avenue, many chanted for Mr. Lukashenko to leave and waved the traditional white and red flag, which became a symbol of the opposition after the president replaced it with a more Soviet-looking national flag soon after he came to power.

Source: New York Times August 16, 2020 16:07 UTC