Belarus was engulfed in a wave of street protests and clashes between police and demonstrators after holding presidential elections on August 9, with forces opposing President Alexander Lukashenko accusing him of falsifying the results, and demanding a ‘peaceful handover of power'.
Belarusian state television has publicized what it says is the platform of the united opposition, with the document, the authenticity of which has yet to be independently verified, said to include elements which would dramatically weaken Belarus's relationship with Russia and move Minsk toward closer relations with the West and NATO.
The program, dubbed the ‘Emergency Package of Reforms for Belarus', is said to have been approved by the main opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, during the election campaign. According to Belarus 1 TV, the document was recently pulled offline, but remains accessible in Google's cache.
Other proposals are said to include cutting off access to Russian television channels while mandating the broadcast of Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish and Ukrainian channels, introducing Belarusian-only lessons in schools and universities, banning ‘pro-Russian' organizations, and introducing legal responsibility for ‘crimes against Belarusianness,' including anyone questioning the existence of the Belarusian nation, state and language.
Political observer Oleg Romanov, who studied the document in detail for Belarus 1, told the TV channel that the radical…
