Lukashenko: I need to contact Putin, protests not just threat to Belarus

People gather at Independent Square during a rally in the center of Minsk, Belarus, Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. Some thousands of people have gathered in the centre of the Belarus capital, Minsk, in a show of anger over a recent brutal police crackdown on peaceful protesters that followed a disputed presidential election. (AP)

• Mass unrest followed Lukashenko’s re-election victory last week

MINSK: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday he wanted to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning street protests were not just a threat to Belarus.
Mass unrest followed Lukashenko’s re-election victory last week, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets accusing him of rigging the vote. “There is a need to contact Putin so that I can talk to him now, because it is not a threat to just Belarus anymore,” he said, according to state news agency Belta.
“Defending Belarus today is no less than defending our entire space, the union state, and an example to others ... Those who roam the streets, most of them do not understand this.”