RTR: Belarusian officials will murder journalists under cover of OSCE experts (Video)

A news item of RTR TV channel (Russia) on the total lawlessness in Belarus has been censored again.

We offer the shorthand record and VIDEO:

A completely different atmosphere, which however is greatly determined by the election campaign, is shaping in the relations between Moscow and Minsk now. This week Alyaksandr Lukashenka has made a number of invectives against Russia again. In his Twitter Dmitry Medvedev answered the question of a Belarusian user about the presidential election in Belarus: “My attitude to your election is maximally respectable. And I have said everything about your president already.” Meanwhile, this week an oppositional rally has been held in Minsk, and unusually the authorities did not disband it.

The centre of Minsk. A little less that a month before the presidential election. A menacing voice of a man in a uniform of a prosecutor is heard from a big monitor over the square. The deputy head of the supervision over observance of rights and freedoms of citizens’ department promises a harsh punishment for the organizers of that rally, and secret services officers emerge here and there in the crowd. They captured the faces of the protesters on the video.

Lukashenka – opposition appearances on air – 20 to one

Relations with Russia are the pre-election pet subject of candidate Lukashenka. The nearest neighbour is number one enemy now. This time the president is discontented by prices for Russian armaments.

“It is a wrong approach when we are offered to buy armaments ourselves, and moreover at market prices. In this direction Russia is interested to have army in good order, so they should help us,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka is convinced.

“All the time Alyaksandr Lukashenka was busy with asking and receiving money from Russia. Properly speaking, he was not doing anything else, properly speaking, he was just fooling Russia: “give me money, give me money” – explains Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, the candidate for presidency in Belarus, the leader of “Tell the truth” public campaign.

Now Lukashenka expects help from the West. There was a visit of foreign ministers of Poland and Germany to Minsk. The ministers did not hide: they discussed the upcoming election.

Belarus was promised three billion Euro in the next three years in case the pre-election game would be carried out according to the rules. But the opposition calls the current campaign an illusion, and the authorized meetings and TV broadcasts – a veneer created only for receiving European money.

“The main aim of the regime is rigging the election results. Observers are not allowed to see the vote count. Not a single referendum or elections have been recognized by Europe,” states Andrei Sannikov, the candidate for presidency in Belarus, a coordinator of “European Belarus” campaign.

A U-turn from Russia to the European Union could not be left unnoticed. Just like a signal “we are valuing your efforts” was confirmation by the OSCE experts of the official story of the death of Aleh Byabenin, the founder of charter97.org oppositional website. In September Byabenin was found hanged in his summer cottage in Minsk. Without going into details, experts from Norway and Sweden agree with the opinion of the investigation, that it was an ordinary suicide. Colleagues and friends of Byabenin call that a part of a big political game.

“These people were in Belarus for 3 days only, and they confirm themselves that they had not been carrying out investigation, but made conclusions basing upon documents provided by Lukashenka’s prosecutor’s office and police only,” says Zmitser Bandarenka, a campaign manager of a candidate in Belarus.

“Today the Belarusian authorities understand that they can murder journalists easily. And the OSCE experts will close their eyes to it,” Natalya Radzina, the editor-in-chief of the online publication “Charter’97” is indignant.

In the same interview to the French journalist A. Lukashenka made an important statement. He saw a hand of Moscow behind the back of the opposition.

The reaction of the opposition was rapid. They promised to sue the president for label.

“Now ties with Moscow are a negative thing for Lukashenka. He wanted to insult me, when I said that Moscow is changing its position, that we need Moscow very much, that Lukashenka is not a partner for Russia. And all of us know that he is lying,” Andrei Sannikov, the presidential candidate in Belarus, a coordinator of “European Belarus” campaign says.

Next week the pre-election televised debates in Belarus start. The incumbent, and as everyone is convinced, the future president of Belarus demonstrates to voters his physical fitness at an improvised game with the world number one tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, and the best Belarusian players Victoria Azarenka. However, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has refused to participate in a televised dispute with his political opponents.