Belarus Jeans Revolution in
Minsk during the Jeans Revolution By March 2006, authoritarian and pro-Russian
president Alexander Lukashenko had ruled
Belarus for twelve years, and was aiming for a third term after term limits were cancelled by a
dubious referendum in 2004 that was judged to not be free and fair internationally. Lukashenko had faced widespread international criticism for crushing dissent, neglecting human rights and restricting civil society. The main challenger to Lukashenko in the election was
Alexander Milinkevich, who advocated liberal democratic values and who was supported by a coalition of the major opposition parties. The regime also further limited the freedoms of independent and foreign journalists, with it being noted by analysts that Lukashenko was attempting to prevent a repeat of the popular uprisings which had ousted authoritarian governments in the Georgian and Ukrainian colour revolutions. As had previously been the case,
Russia generally supported the authoritarian Belarusian authorities, with some top-level Russian officials openly declaring their wish for a Lukashenko victory. Lukashenko was contentiously declared the winner of the election, with official results granting him 83% of the vote. International monitors severely criticised the legitimacy of the poll. Immediately after the official results were announced, 30,000 protested in the capital of
Minsk. Thousands of protestors then maintained a tent protest camp on
October Square for several days and nights, which failed to be broken up by police and indicated that the opposition had gained a foothold. The opposition originally used as a symbol the
white-red-white flag of Belarus prior to 1995; the movement has had significant connections with that in neighbouring Ukraine. During the Orange Revolution, some white-red-white flags were seen being waved in Kyiv. During the 2006 protests, some called it the "Jeans Revolution" or "Denim Revolution",
blue jeans being considered a symbol for freedom. Some protesters cut up jeans into ribbons and hung them in public places. Lukashenko had previously indicated his plans to crush any potential election protests, saying: "In our country, there will be no pink or orange, or even banana revolution." On 24 February 2005, he said, "They [the West] think that Belarus is ready for some 'orange' or, what is a rather frightening option, 'blue' or '
cornflower blue' revolution. Such 'blue' revolutions are the last thing we need". On 19 April 2005, he further commented: "All these coloured revolutions are pure and simple banditry." Lukashenko later himself apparently admitted that the 2006 election was rigged, being quoted in Belarusian media as saying: "last presidential elections were rigged; I already told this to the Westerners. [...] 93.5% voted for the President Lukashenko [sic]. They said it's not a European number. We made it 86. This really happened. And if [one is to] start recounting the votes, I don't know what to do with them. Before the elections they told us that if we showed the European numbers, our elections would be accepted. We were planning to make the European numbers. But, as you can see, this didn't help either."
2020 Belarusian presidential election After the
2020 Belarusian presidential election, there were another wave of mass protests to challenge Lukashenko's authority. The protests started claiming fraud after incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected. The main opposition candidate
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya declared herself the winner, saying that she won by a large margin. She then set up the "
Coordination Council", which was recognized as the legitimate interim government by the
European Parliament. As of December 2020, some of the media states say that the revolution failed and that Lukashenko managed to prevent a repeat of the
Euromaidan.
Russia In September 2011, Russian president
Dmitry Medvedev, who had ruled for four years in a more liberal direction than his predecessor
Vladimir Putin, declared that Putin would run again in the upcoming presidential election. Putin had previously had to step down and make way for Medvedev to become president in 2008 due to limits on consecutive presidential terms, but the plans for his return were now made public. In November, Putin suffered a notable humiliation when he was loudly booed by the 20,000 strong crowd when attending and speaking at a public and televised fight bout, which indicated that there was opposition to him again returning to the presidency. The protests began on 4 December 2011 in the Russian capital of
Moscow against the election results, leading to the arrests of over 500 people. On 10 December, protests erupted in tens of cities across the country; a few months later, they spread to hundreds both inside the country and abroad. The protests were described as "Snow Revolution". It derives from December—the month when the revolution had started—and from the white ribbons that the protesters wore. The focus of the protests were the ruling party,
United Russia, and Putin. Protests intensified after Putin dubiously won the
2012 Russian presidential election by a preposterous margin. Video footage was discovered showing examples of vote rigging, such as an individual secretly and repeatedly feeding ballot papers into a voting machine.
Boris Nemtsov, one of the leaders of the protest movement, was later
assassinated with the apparent involvement of the Russian security services (and the possible involvement of Putin himself) in 2015.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, another key figure in the protests, later survived suspected poisonings in 2015 and 2017 before being imprisoned for 25 years on charges widely considered politically motivated in 2022.
Ilya Yashin, another key leader of the protests, was likewise another figure convicted on politically-motivated charges after Russia's
2022 invasion of Ukraine. Protest figure
Dmitry Bykov was also poisoned in 2019, having been trailed by the same FSB agents who poisoned Navalny in 2020. == Opposition ==