Protesters Gather in Belarus Over Fears Integration With Russia Could Weaken Independence

Protesters gathered in Minsk on December 20 as Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg to discuss deeper economic ties between the two countries.

Demonstrators in Minsk voiced their concern that closer integration with Russia could weaken their country’s independence and lead to Belarus being annexed like Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

Russia and Belarus have discussed deeper integration, or a ‘union state,’ for around two decades, Reuters reported. Lukashenko recently accused Putin of bullying the former Soviet state into deeper ties with Moscow after the Kremlin raised energy prices and reduced subsidies to Belarus. Credit: Franak Viačorka via Storyful