Could red-and-white Belarus ‘protest flag’ provoke a Russian intervention?
- Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko faces growing calls to step down as the ex-Soviet country becomes engulfed in protests
- Protesters have brandished symbolic red-and-white flags that some observers fear could escalate tensions and trigger Russian involvement
On Sunday, upwards of 100,000 protesters flooded the streets of Minsk, the Belarusian capital, to protest what many consider to have been a rigged presidential election.
Protests have erupted across Belarusian cities in response to the contested results, with an ensuing police crackdown that has left many participants wounded and at least two dead. Reports of rubber bullets, water cannons, an internet shutdown and other brutal measures have only increased protester numbers, the largest in the country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990.
And through it all, protesters have carried a flag that may be new to those unfamiliar with Belarusian politics. Its red-and-white design flies in the face of the post-Soviet nation’s red-and-green official banner. It is a key to understanding the nation’s past – and may hint at its future.
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Belarus protests against President Lukashenko continue with demands for new elections
“The flag was invented in 1915, and was supposed to resemble Belarusian folk costumes in white, with a red girdle,” said Per Rudling, a research associate at the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies at Sodertorn University in Stockholm. The colours evoke historical Lithuanian and Polish kingdoms, which used to include lands in western Belarus before they were annexed to the Soviet Union during World War II.