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Russian ambassador defends "silent" protests

Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Surikov has criticized the Belarusian authorities for clamping down on "silent" protests staged across Belarus.

"I don't approve of such actions by the Belarusian authorities," Mr. Surikov said in an interview with BelaPAN. "In my view, any person has the right to stand, clap his hands, without chanting any slogans or making speeches."

"And 20, 30, 200, 500 people have the right to stand in the square and have the right to clap their hands or stomp. What matters most is that they should not disturb public peace, obstruct traffic, etc.," the ambassador said.

Mr. Surikov noted that the existence of government critics is the norm in any country. "The authorities have many ways to save their face anyway. And as long as this movement has not grown to massive proportions, they'd better ignore it altogether and rather focus on efforts to have the population's incomes restored to the previous level and the number of opponents will not be rising then," he said.
The ambassador criticized the arrests and convictions of Russian citizens over "silent" protests in Belarus. Some of them did not even take part "in these lawful events." "This is, of course, an outrage. Russia will always be defending the rights of its citizens in an absolutely tough manner," he said.