Belarusian blogoshere reacted in different ways to today’s Milinkevich’s meeting with voters. But positives prevail over negatives. Number of participants ranges from 3,000 to 5,000, depending on who you read.
But most bloggers who wrote about it agreed that it had been the first big action in Minsk in quite a while. It’s really a good sign that so many people made it to the venue. A lot of Milinkevich supporters were stopped on the way to Minsk. Liberty Square was blocked, many couldn’t get to where the crowd was gathering, and there were so many policemen that it was really scary.
A Belarusian blogger, Zolak, who lives in Poland, wrote an emotional reaction to today’s news, expressed his frustration that he couldn’t be in Minsk, and his disappointment that many people just didn’t go out, stayed in their offices and homes, while they ought to have participated in the historic events.
And here are three short movie clips from the action, kindly uploaded by Vojur.
http://studenty.by/video/1.avi
http://studenty.by/video/2.avi
http://studenty.by/video/3.avi

Over 3,000 people, according to milinkevich.org, gathered to cheer for their leader at Liberty Square. However, many people were not able to get to the venue, as access to it was blocked by law enforcement.
Today many Belarusian websites encountered problems, either technical inability to welcome so many visitors or were these DoS attacks, but just out of my own browsing experience (from US), I had troubles accessing Milinkevich.org, kozylin.com, charter97.org, and RFE\RL (svaboda.org).

World media report on today’s dramatic events. Ron Popeski of Reuters writes:

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday defiantly told his Western critics to stay out of his country’s affairs, while an opposition rival for the presidency was beaten by security forces and detained.

Lukashenko, who faces tougher Western sanctions if a March 19 election which he is heavily favoured to win is denounced as unfair, vowed to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent Western-inspired subversion of his administration.

“It is not for (the West) to teach us about human rights. Let them deal with their own affairs. They have plunged the entire Middle East into blood. We see your democracy soaked in blood,” he declared in a speech of more than three hours.

Speaking a day after the state security service, called the KGB, said it had thwarted an attempt to seize power, Lukashenko told 2,500 delegates at the “Belarussian National Congress” that opposition activists should be drafted into the army.

“And if they don’t go, let them answer to the law. They all dodged military service in their time,” he said.

Read the full article here.

Kazulin has just been released. A small group of supporters already gathered near Liberty Square. People are being blocked from it. Milinkevich is not yet at the venue.

An oppositional candidate Kazulin is badly beaten up personally by a notorious commander of SOBR, Pavlichenko, and taken away into custody. Dozens of members of his team were arrested today. His proxies were also beaten as they escorted him to the the people’s assembly where Kazulin wanted to make a speech.
The police tried to arrest a few Kazulin’s campaigners, but they jumped into an auto and tried to drive away. A policeman fired a few shots at their car, broke a windshield and shot a back wheel. The guys left the car over the corner and escaped.
There is unofficial information that Kazulin may be taken off the presidential track for his “hooliganism” if charged. He also may spend up to 15 days in jail. And his new TV address, already recorded, is supposedly going to be censored.
At 18:00, Milinkevich is gathering his supporters at Liberty Square. CEC and police warn that this gathering would be illegal and CEC secretary suggested that Milinkevich could be jailed for 15 days, as well.
Election observers Partnership were libeled by KGB for planning a bombing during opposition manifestations after Lukashenka’s victory, to provoke the revolution. Partnerstva.org website, which had tracked the campaign, disappeared from the internet. Charter97.org was DOS-attacked today, most of Belarusian political sites work comparatively slower. Seems like RFE\RL’s site had some problems, as well.
The day of ugly truth has come for those of you who doubted. Lukashenka is not a type of person who will just step down, yield, or follow his own laws. To stay in power, he will do whatever it takes.

Today there’s going to be a crucial day in Milinkevich’s campaign (sick! in his own words). Undoubtedly, his team has made some minor flaws and, arguably, some major mistakes. One of the most recent ones is procrastination in submission of the candidate’s program to the state-owned newspapers, which have stated that it was too late and they wouldn’t accept it.
Kazulin’s TV and radio addresses were quite impressive, straightforward and bold. He reminded of Lukashenka, and seemed to be a greater oppositionist than Milinkevich, who spoke much more to the point, more intelligently and complexly. If Kazulin and Milinkevich were on the same boat, they would make a rather good duet, but they aren’t, and the electorate, that does not know a thing about both, tries to catch bits of information that is accessible. As far as I can judge from online discussions and RFE\RL street opinion polls, Kazulin has gained popularity.
Today’s meeting with voters, which is planned at Liberty Square, is a chance for Milinkevich to win back the initiative.
But at the same time, there is a danger that the meeting will be dispersed, and Milinkevich may face charges for organizing an unsanctioned gathering, as hinted by CEC chair Yarmoshina.
With hours left to wait, let us see how the events unfold.

At the moment, I am listening to Songs of Liberty, a compilation of Belarusian music recorded over the post-soviet period of our history. If most of analysts turn to be wrong, and there’ll be something like Belarusian revolution, this album may become a great soundtrack to it.
A brilliant collection of pro-active music – the key theme is freedom. If compared with Ukrainian orange compilation, I bought on Maidan during the revolution, Belarusian protest songs are heavier, more (melo)dramatic – rock prevails over other musical genres. To cut it short, I like it! Definitely, a must have!
The album can be downloaded here until March 22, 2006.