On a lovely Saturday, I met a colleague and Shelby her pup
for a morning walk by the river. We’d planned to try out the paddleboats, as
both Colleague and Pup will (hopefully, for their sake) be leaving Minsk soon.
There’s a bucket list of things to do, and paddleboating on the Svislach river
is a must.
We met before the paddleboats opened, so I took the
opportunity to film this
Facebook post marking U.N. Public Service day. (That’s the Cathedral of the
Holy Spirit’s bells ringing in the background.) I’d tried to film it the day
before at home but had to rig up a backdrop and arrange the phone and wound up
with what someone kindly described as a “hostage video,” so that got deleted.
The Svislach River itself is wonderful and I am keeping up
with the walks up and down various segments of it, but until Saturday I hadn’t
gotten on it. We decided to get the four-seater “catamaran” so Shelby could
have a place to sit ($6 for an hour), but she wound up mostly standing on the
divider between the seats, which held the rudder control thing.
The part of the river we were on is the view on the way to
work; there are a bunch of boring buildings on one side, slightly less boring
buildings on another plus a domed concert venue of some sort, a place to go
go-karting and the Isle of Tears. You
can also see a bit farther down to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, too.
The Isle of Tears is a peaceful little island that commemorates
Soviet soldiers from Belarus who died in the war with Afghanistan between 1979
and 1989, and there are lot of ducks that call home. We circled it about three times, and on the
second, we were just relaxing and watching the ducks. There are lots of mama
and baby ducks all over and they would swim up to us because people tend to
feed them.
Shelby is a really good diplo-dog, and she is a good
rider in the car. She was also really good in the boat, right up until she took
a flying leap off after the ducks. She sunk, then rose to the top, quite bewildered,
and her mom hauled her back in, laughing hysterically. Shelby kept shaking off
and both humans just laughed and laughed. She was really wet and all three of
us smelled like wet dog. No duck
feathers were ruffled whatsoever. She didn’t even get close to them.
In other news, the Belarusian elections are scheduled
for August 9, and there’s all kinds of stuff leading up to them. The president
has been in power for 26 years and there’s a growing sentiment that it’s time
for a change. Meanwhile, the president’s opponents are winding up being
detained by law enforcement officials for what many deem false charges.
One of the prime opponents, along with his son, was
detained by the KGB (it’s still called that here) on Thursday. That night, as I
was watching “The Hunger Games,” I thought I heard people clapping and horns
honking, but not constantly.
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| Euronews photo: https://www.euronews.com/2020/06/19/top-challenger-in-belarusian-presidential-race-detained |
That evening, I’d gone out for a walk and got caught by a massive rainstorm when I was three blocks from home. I got home, shed all my clothes and took a shower, then grabbed dinner, so it was maybe around 7:30 p.m. when I put the movie in.
By the time Kato was being attacked my mutts, there was something going on. Keeping in mind this is two days short of the longest day of the year, it was still light out after 9 p.m. I looked out of my front window and saw/heard cars blaring their horns as they drove down the road in front of my apartment building. It’s Independence Avenue, and it’s a long, straight road, and there were people lined up on either side. Now and then, they would start clapping.
To me, horns blaring and people clapping signals a Florida State win, but that’s not what was happening here. These are straight-up protests. That’s right, clapping is form of protest in Belarus. In 2011, the president decreed that you can only clap in public for war veterans, so people lining the streets and applauding is a peaceful but unlawful protest.
As we get close to the elections, law enforcement officials have busted out the riot gear and paddywagons and have started detaining people. This is not just happening in Minsk; there are reports coming out of other cities, too.
Thursday remains the biggest protest I’ve seen. It was livestreamed somewhere and apparently people who were watching it on TV came out to join the line, which stretched over two miles. I watched out the window until about 10 p.m. before going to bed, but I heard it went until 1 a.m.
The following evening, like on many Friday nights, I met my colleague for dinner, and we went to a place right downstairs from my apartment. (I have fantastic restaurant choices!) Even just from the outside seating at the restaurant, we could see people walking up and down the street and applauding. There weren’t as many cars honking, but there definitely were more than a few.
There are uniformed officers as well as plainclothes cops around, but I haven’t witnessed anything that seems too heavy-handed, though I’ve seen videos and heard about some.
It is likely that protests will continue leading up to the elections, and who knows what might happen after they are over. I’m not sure how elections are done here, like if there are more races than just the presidential race or what.
It is definitely an interesting time to be in Belarus.
