MINSK, August 14. /TASS/. Belarusian Interior Minister Yuri Karayev has announced that he takes responsibility for injuries of passers-by in protest rallies that have been gripping the country for the five days straight after the presidential election. According to him, it happens in any mass rally when the public order is violated that not only their participants suffer but also "just those who happened to be nearby and did not leave on time."
"As a commander, I want to take responsibility for these people and apologize to them," the minister said on ONT TV Thursday.
At the same time, he specifically highlighted that "there are truly peaceful people" and there are "those who masquerading as peaceful population."
The current events in Belarus aren’t a revolution, the country’s Interior Minister told.
"Revolutions and chaos - thank God, we're not there yet - always lead to a collapse in living standards and stall the economy… Everyone used to envy our safe and calm situation and now we are destroying it all, and for what purposes?" Karayev said.
On August 9, Belarus held the presidential election. Preliminary results show incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko securing his reelection with 80.08% of the votes, while his biggest rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received 10.09% of the ballots cast. The other three candidates failed to get more than two percent each. After exit poll results were revealed late on August 9, many cities and towns across the country saw mass protests that in some cases turned into clashes with the police. Since Sunday, people have been joining demonstrators in the evening daily, while the national interior ministry said 6,000 had been detained, dozens of police officers and protesters were injured.