Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko vowed new steps to crack down on opponents after more demonstrations against his 26-year rule brought tens of thousands of people in to the streets of the capital and other cities over the weekend demanding his resignation.

Police detained two members of the opposition’s coordinating council in Minsk Monday as they sought to organize a strike at one of the country’s largest factories.

On Sunday, more than 100,000 people gathered in and around Independence Square in Minsk, despite phalanxes of riot police and barbed-wire barricades spread across the city. Police patrols on main highways leading to Minsk slowed incoming traffic, making it harder for protesters from other parts of the country to reach the capital.

Lukashenko was shown on state television flying into his Minsk residence in a helicopter carrying an automatic rifle and clad in a bullet-proof vest, with his 15-year-old son, similarly armed, in tow. He basked in pledges of support from riot police guarding the residence.

The former Soviet collective farm boss is confronting the biggest challenge to his rule after claiming a landslide in the Aug. 9 election, which triggered protests and international condemnation of the vote. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the results, has been spurring followers to take to the streets, while urging foreign powers not to intervene.

Russia, Belarus’ closest ally, warned Western countries to stay out of the conflict after congratulating Lukashenko on his election victory. The U.S. and EU have denounced that vote. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun is in Lithuania Monday to discuss the situation. He meets Russian officials Tuesday in Moscow.

The Kremlin is still concerned by signs of “external intervention in Belarus’ affairs,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, declining to specify what countries he was referring to. He said that the Kremlin is not in contact with the opposition’s coordinating council and that to do so would amount to intervention on the part of Russia. While he conceded that opposition leaders haven’t made anti-Russian statements, he said the Kremlin remains more impressed with politicians in Belarus who support closer ties with Moscow.

The opposition that backed Tikhanovskaya’s bid for the presidency is seeking to reassure Russia that any change of power wouldn’t necessarily push Belarus closer to the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Russia signaled on Sunday that it isn’t convinced. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Tikhanovskaya of harboring an allegedly anti-Russian political agenda, telling a forum near Moscow that he also supports a constitutional reform plan by Lukashenko as “very promising.”


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