Belarus Happening QRD

tl;dr
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/13/world/europe/belarus-protests-guide.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

DISCLAIMER: All of the dates, events and their descriptions were all done in real time parallel to the chain of events and included in this pastebin. Writing a summary of events in retrospect as a conclusion would not do the protests the true historical justice they deserve. Therefore, all dates will be kept in chronological order as they were originally written down as, and every reader is invited to make up his own conclusion as to the events. Also, most commentary you will find here is based mostly on first hand footage from first hand sources (In this case the Telegram Channels were the protestors organized and uploaded said footage). Their extrapolation with regards to the larger picture is based mostly on speculation and should be treated as such, because to put it simply, the entire world just had no fucking clue what was really going on. As of 17.08.20 when this edit was made, it still doesn't. But what's important is to let the nature of the events and the context behind them speak for themselves. Whatever western or Russian media say about these events, it's important to know the events all started wholly and honestly by a pure hatred and disdain for Lukashenko and nothing more, without any initial foreign support of either side.

P.S Never in Belarus's 29 year old history have protests manifested themselves on such a scale but in such a peaceful manner. This fact resulted in many police officers and other public officials to quit, who felt shame in having to beat and jail people that were not, essentially, disturbing public order in any way other than simply marching on the large Minsk sidewalks or honking their cars on the roads. After the first 3 days of violence, that is.

>ENTIRE LAST 9 DAY FOOTAGE/COVERAGE:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0kv4Vv3cVcQEDqa8QUCQ5CMKavhjS3fX

Belarus history crashcourse:
Belarusians are either slavicized baltic speakers or balticized slavic speakers depending on which angle you want to look at it but the evolution of balto-slavs within Eastern Europe is a murky business without any clear cut cultural-linguistic evolution. There's numerous points of view on belarus history and it will change depending on who you ask. Fastforward to 1922 the first Belarus state is formed as the Belarus Soviet Socialist Republic. The first time the belorusians got a name and a state for themselves was due to and within the USSR. There are two ideological schools in Belarus that treat the subject different. First is the "Litvin" ideological school which claims belarusians are actually slavicized lithuanians. Their flag is the white red striped flag which protestors used in the protests (Although doubtful with the intent of it's original use) as well as it being the official flag of Belarus from 1991 to 1995. Then the other ideological school is the russian nationalists, who basically claim belarusians are no different to the rest of the russian population within Russia. Both parties were banned by Lukashenko and it's members persecuted and/or exiled with almost no presence left in Belarus.

Fast forward to 1994, first constitution which allowed for first presidential elections. Shortly after winning, Lukashenko officially proposed the russian State Duma the creation of a Union of Slavic States, which would eventually culminate into the Union State project (google it). In May 1995, Belarus held a referendum on changing its national symbols. The referendum also made the Russian language equal to Belarusian, and forged closer economic ties to Russia.

Belarus grew economically under Lukashenko, but much of this growth was due to Russian crude oil which was imported at below-market prices, refined, and sold to other European countries at a profit. Belarus economy also relies heavily on russian loans and raw resources to continue existing. Most of Belarus economy is state owned, aside the modest IT sector. Aside that Belarus economy is a carbon copy of the USSR's, thus did not undergo the liberalization shock wave of other post-USSR countries. From his election in 1994 till now Lukashenko had managed to amass significant power and influence around himself, eventually managing to silence or imprison whoever was against him over the years securing total monopoly over the country. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, American intelligence agencies reported arms deals with Iraq and Iran, which prompted Western governments to refer to Belarus as "Europe's last dictatorship".

Since 2012 Belarus economy had been stagnant. Socially things went downhill over the years with one of Lukashenko's most famous policy being the "Unemployed tax". In 2014 relations with Russia took an unexpected turn when Lukashenko did not side with Putin in his position towards Crimea. Because of this Russia started to cease preferrential export prices of raw resources to Belarus. In january 2020 he refused to sign the last requirement for the Union State, officially absorbing Belarus into Russia. All of these external and internal factors led to popular disatisfaction against his near 30 year reign, which leads us to the 2020 presidential elections, where he used usual tactics of intimidating/imprisoning/banning opposition candidates from registering to run in the elections, which again led to mass dissatisfaction. Btw if you haven't been researching it yourself until now, Belarus already has russian bases installed on it's territory ever since the USSR which the russian military inherited and currently controls.

Lukashenko's been infamous for jailing his opposition for the past 20 years in each and every presidential election so keep that in mind before diving into the events further. Prior to these elections 2 months ago Lukashenko had finished jailing a new batch of opposition who were critical of his handling of the economy and wanted to run for president. The most relevant were blogger Sergey Tikhanovsky, banker Vyctor Babaryko and ex-ambassador to US Valeryi Tsepkalov
___________________
Fast forward to now.

>>03.08.20.
Day 1 of Presidential Election. Very small leaderless spread out Minsk grassroot protests are organized by average people
>>08.08.20
Concert-rallies are organized. The song "Peremen" (Changes) by Victor Tzoy is being sung in such a concert-rally, but is shut down by government agents
>>09.08.20.
Video reports of polling chiefs smuggling opposition votes outside the polling backwindow all while votes are being counted. The official results came in 2 days later and had only a slight difference in percentage between Lukashenko and Tikhanovskaya. Lukashenko won by 80%. Protests ecalated quickly into violent chaotic mass riots after preliminary election results were announced.
>>10.08.20.
Most internet in Minsk shut down
>>11.08.20.
Protests start to settle down. Workers from state factories go officially on strike. First protestor demands are formulated; Lukashenko to leave power, re-elections, and release of detained opposition members. Internet back up but still not working too good. Belarus anons had a hard time posting because their vpns didn't allow captcha solving.
>>12.08.20.
Protests morphed into peaceful activism which continue so far till now.

4 dimensions of the civil unrest have taken shape so far as of 15.08.20 :
-People's own opinion on why and what they're protesting for without any leader or spokesperson on their behalf
-Belarus political opposition, Russian and EU/US's own opinions on why and what people are protesting for

>More than 7000 people were arrested, ~30 cities participated, several dozen injured, 2-3 confirmed officially dead
___________________
>10.08.20:
Strikers, protestors and opposition leaders are mostly ACTING SEPARETELY and INDEPENDENTLY of one another.
Protestors are leaderless, organizing and acting all on their own by organizing via Telegram
>16.08.20:
The unofficial spokesperson of protest-activists became Maria Kolesnikova, part of the opposition Trio who hasn't fled Belarus
>17.08.20
Kolesnikova made herself the official representative of the protests
___________________
Official demands of Strikers/ Protestors/ Opposition

>11.08.20:
Lukashenko must abandon power
New and fair presidental re-elections
Release of all political prisoners detained in the past months
>16.08.20:
Lukashenko must abandon power
Release of all political prisoners detained in the past months as well as other over 7000 people currently detained in jail
_____________________
Inb4 MUH FOREIGN INFLUENCE
>10.08.20:
Events were not started directly by it but they are escalating into getting high jacked by either side FAST
>15.08.20
Lithuanian presidential staff officially admitted to have organized and coordinated Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's second public statement
>16.08.20:
Video proof where huge White-Red striped flags started  to appear in Grodno, belarus city near polish border.
>17.08.20:
Protests start to fizzle out and downsize on number of people. Tikhanovskaya stated she is ready to become a national leader. NextaTV telegram channel responsible for most space where protestors organized now openly call for EU backing as well as Svetlana as their leader. Reminder, NextaTV is owned by a belarusian person risiding in Poland. Could be that CIA acting via proxy in Poland influenced his pinned posts on the channel, or the polish government itself wanting to project soft power. In either case, protest events as well as their legacy now officially high jacked and become pro-western.

It was idyllic while it lasted!