Minsk
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has stated that "Due to safety and security issues that are beyond the IIHF’s control, the IIHF Council confirmed today that the decision to move the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship from Minsk, Belarus is unavoidable."
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened demonstrators stating that "if someone touches a military man, he must at least leave without hands". Since Monday, the opposition has been trying to force Lukashenko to resign from office by calling for general strikes.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Wednesday he had asked the Russian president to supply Belarus with new weapons.
During a visit of the Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to Minsk, Lukashenko stated: "I also asked the Russian president to provide certain types of weapons to us. I told him: when you come, we will see what things we need to strengthen in terms of the Union State."
For the fifth weekend in a row, protesters took the streets in Belarus against President Alexander Lukashenko under the slogan "We won’t let him sell the country." According to news agencies, at least 100,000 people joined the rally in Minsk, with Police claiming they had detained over 400 people in the city.
The Russian Government has stepped up support, offering to potentially restructure Belarusian debt, and providing banking liquidity. It has also said Russian riot police could be made available if needed.
Lukashenko will meet Vladimir Putin Monday in the Russian resort of Sochi. It will be their first face-to-face encounter since Belarus’s presidential election on August 9.
A prominent opponent of President Alexander Lukashenko has allegedly been seized from the streets of Minsk by masked men in black and taken away in a van.
The anti-Lukashenko protests have brought tens of thousands people to the street. Protestors are met with "far more police than during previous protests", so the BBC. Many public areas such as the Independence Square in Minsk are being cordoned off by police. At least 125 people have been arrested so far.
During the day thousands of Belarusians have protested peacefully. Workers all across the country have gone on general strike including hospital, metro and factory workers.
Videos have surfaced that show police convoys apparently leaving the area around the independence square in Minsk. Lukashenko has appeared on television claiming that outside forces from Poland, Netherlands, Ukraine, and Russia have infiltrated the country in order to spark protests and destabilize it. He ordered all people to stay in their homes and not go outside.
The professional Dota 2 esports organization B8 has announced that one of their players has been detained by the police in Belarus. On Tuesday evening he went out to meet with friends on Victoria Square in Minsk. According to the statement "police officers approached them and, for reasons unknown to us, took them into Victoria Square metro station building, where there were already about 50 detainees".
On Wednesday his friends found out that he had been detained. His exact location and condition are unknown, but his friends suspect him to be detained in a preliminary prison in the Zhodino, Minsk region.
Demidovich currently plays for the organization of Danil "Dendi" Ishutin the winner of the Dota 2 world championships "The International" in 2011.