Excessive use of force in Belarus. You can read my previous post on the protests in #Belarus after the elections. Now I want to tell you about the riot police. Belarusians declared their right to express political will. The demonstrators came out peacefully. But riot police and special forces escalated the situation. Anyone on the streets gets a HARD rebuff from riot police. Incredible and uncontrollable brutality. People are being deliberately shot and maimed. Flash grenades and rubber bullets suddenly became an absolutely common thing. You can find thousands of videos on youtube. Here is one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOKKpZ_-8_M The stories about torture and bullying in places of detention are frightening too. There are not enough places in prisons. Twenty people are kept in cells that can accommodate five people. If there are not enough places in prisons, then people are taken to gyms and forced to lie face down for hours. Here are some of the stories: One former prisoner showed marks in the form of a cross on his back from the police batons. Two girls said that riot policemen tried to stuff white ribbons into their mouths (white ribbons — a symbol of support for Tikhanovskaya). Some are forced to kneel for hours or to stand facing the wall and sing the anthem of Belarus or read The Lord's Prayer. If you forget the words or refuse to sing, you are beaten. If you raise your eyes, you are beaten. If you do at least something that you were not told, they beat you up. Today girls and women in white robes and with flowers protested against the lawlessness. Against repression, against mass beatings. Several large factories protested against the beatings. The doctors came out to protest against the mass beatings. Some doctors say they have never seen such injuries in peacetime in their lives. You can watch the latest euronews lastest report on YouTube. The absolute majority of Belarusians calls for an end to the violence and genocide of Belarusians. It is not yet clear whether the state will hear us, whether the riot police and special forces will hear us. We'll see it tonight.

A quick note on Belarus for English speaking friends. 1) There are no polls in Belarus. We didn’t know before the elections who was leading the race. But there were signs of popularity: one of the candidates gathered 450 000+ signatures — a record for the alternative candidate in the history of Belarus. Of course, later on he was detained. He is currently in prison. 2) There is no electoral process in Belarus. Elections are corrupt. The outcome is just a number on a paper — absolutely no one believes those numbers. Officially Mr. Lukashenko has 80%+ votes. 3) People are on the streets to show Mr. Lukashenko that 80%+ result is non realistic and is purely offensive. People are on the streets to show, that we are tired of lies. We are tired of been treated as a second hand people by our president. We are tired of being deprived of our rights and freedoms. We are tired of being afraid. We are tired to tolerate. We demand change.

Going to do some work here for a bit.

I've been lucky with the sunsets recently

Этому городу не хватает высоченных каштанов из моего детства.

Ещё одна фоточка сегодняшнего заката в #minsk

Пора идти домой и готовиться к вечернему футболу.

Наконец-то весна пришла в Минск.

Xmas mood in Gomel.

I came to this city with just couple of things on my to-do list: beers and moules. But it turned out that Xmas atmosphere here is just perfect.

It was very cold and scary to ride in this wheel. Or I was just too sober at that moment. Not enough glint wine.

Пост про мобильную связь и экономию денег. МТС vs velcom. Умножь свою абонплату на 12 и это будет то, что ты сэкономишь. Уже несколько недель идёт невиданная ранее война за абонентов между двумя провайдерами сотовой связи о которой, почему-то, не пишут СМИ. Не уверен, когда и где это началось, но я впервые услышал об этом от своих друзей из Гомеля. Итак, если у вас гомельская (предложение действительно ещё и для Светлогорска) прописка и вы абонент velcom или life, то вы можете перейти на МТС на тарифный план с безлимитом по звонкам и интернету с абонплатой всего в 1 р. в месяц!!! Если вы абонент velcom, через пару часов после вашего визита в офис МТС, вам приходит смс от velcom с предложением остаться их абонентом со снижением абонплаты до 1р. в месяц. Минус тут в том, что в случае принятия данного предложения velcom урезает скорость интернета до 1 Мбит/с. Говорят, в офисах МТС в Гомеле не протолкнуться. В других городах Беларуси, есть другие предложение. Если вы абонент МТС и попытаетесь перейти у другому оператору, то МТС предложит вам остаться с МТС за тот же 1 р. в месяц. Так что, можно сказать, что ооочень дешевая мобильная связь пришла в Беларусь. Берём попкорн и наблюдаем за тем, как будут развиваться события дальше. P.S. Если вы знаете ещё какие интересные предложения, то пишите в комментах. P. P. S. На фото квартал между офисами МТС и velcom в #Гомель #Gomel