Minsk City Executive Committee Doesn’t Authorize St. Valentine’s Day Procession

An application for authorization of the peaceful action was filed to the CEC by a number of youth activists. In the answer given to them it was stated that the application could not be satisfied as they hadn’t mentioned there their places of work. One of the leaders of the unregistered youth organization Young Front Zmitser Khvedaruk said that the action would take place anyway, under the traditional slogan ‘Let Belarus Be a Part of Europe! As a said by him, now it coincides with the official rhetoric of the head of the state and in the case of dispersal of the action by the police such rhetoric would appear plainly nonsense.

The action starts at 6 p.m. on 14 February in Svabody Square. A fancy-dress procession will come first to the French Embassy, then to the embassies of Poland, Germany and the US. A theatric play and a number of competitions are planned as well. In the case the police decide to ring the square and thus disrupt the action the activists will gather near St. Mary cathedral, opposite the old city major’s office.