Belarus police clamped down swiftly on planned public protests against President Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday as he told an open-air rally that a plot was afoot to overthrown his long rule. Social network sites run by mainly young protesters had urged their supporters to begin clapping as soon as the authoritarian Lukashenko, in power since 1994, began making a traditional Independence Day declaration.
Opposition to Lukashenko, once dubbed the “last dictator in Europe” by the US Bush administration, has grown bolder in the tightly controlled ex-Soviet republic of 9.5 million as it struggles to overcome a currency crisis. The balance of payments crisis was caused by 30-40 percent hikes in public sector wages and pensions last year aimed at ensuring Lukashenko’s comfortable re-election in December, but which helped create a current account trade deficit.