Belarus Protests Extend Into Third Night Despite Harsh Crackdown
- Opposition candidate flees to Lithuania after detention Monday
- Lukashenko calls opponents ‘sheep’ manipulated from abroad
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Protesters challenging President Alexander Lukashenko’s claim to a landslide victory in Sunday’s elections took to the streets defying riot police for the third straight evening Tuesday, even after the main opposition candidate fled the country under pressure.
Backers of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who said alternative counts showed she won the vote, called for supporters to continue demonstrations nonviolently, despite increasingly harsh crackdowns by the authorities that left at least one dead Monday night and more than 5,000 detained.