Belarus established a criminal case on Thursday against a new resistance body, accusing it of an illegal attempt to grab power, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to sweep the roads of protesters who reject his own re-election.
Belarus has been facing its biggest political crisis since the breakup of the Soviet Union, with tens of thousands of demonstrators rejecting Lukashenko's success in an Aug. 9 vote his opponents say was rigged.
Opponents of Lukashenko, a gruff former collective farm manager in power for 26 years, unveiled the Coordination Council on Tuesday with the stated goal of negotiating a transfer of power.
Its heaps of members incorporate a Nobel Prize-winning writer and the ousted head of Minsk's main drama theatre, in addition to exiled presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose followers say she won the election.
The general prosecutor's office explained the body as designed to seize power, calling the action of setting it up a threat to domestic security, Russia's RIA news agency reported. No people were named as suspects in the situation.
The authorities issued a statement rejecting the accusations and saying its efforts were legal.
"The accusation is completely baseless and without foundation. Our goal is to resolve the crisis without battle. We are not calling for the seizure of power," council member Syarhei Dyleuski, pioneer of a committee of striking workers at the Minsk Tractor Factory, told Reuters.
After times of huge rallies drawing tens of thousands of demonstrators, protests were reduced Thursday but not halted.
Lukashenko announced on Wednesday he had ordered police to clear the streets of the capital, although no action was taken against hundreds of protesters who staged a rally in front of the police headquarters after that day. By lunchtime on Thursday there was no indication of a decisive security operation.
Bigger rallies are expected again over the weekend.
Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who emerged as the consensus resistance candidate following better-known characters were barred from standing, for example her jailed activist husband, has fled into neighbouring Lithuania.
Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis met her at his workplace in Vilnius on Thursday.
He also"assured her that the authorities, together with its partners in Poland, Latvia and Estonia, do and will do everything so that there are free and fair elections in Belarus, also so that her children could when possible hug their daddy in liberty," he wrote on Facebook.
That brought a thinly veiled rebuke in the Kremlin, which stated Moscow would see any contact between overseas officials and the Belarus opposition as interference in Belarusian affairs.
The crisis in Belarus, Russia's most faithful neighbor, is an evaluation for the Kremlin, that has to decide whether to stick with Lukashenko or try to manage a transfer of electricity.
It also poses a challenge to Western leaders trying to avert violence six years after a popular uprising in neighbouring Ukraine brought Russian military intervention and triggered Europe's wildest continuing battle.
Of all Russia's former neighbours, Belarus has the closest political, cultural and economic connection to Moscow, and its heavily fortified boundaries with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are major frontiers of NATO.
The European Union has rejected Lukashenko's re-election and declared sanctions on Wednesday against some Belarus officials it blames for elections fraud and misuse of protesters.
EU members bordering on Belarus have predicted for a tough line towards Lukashenko, but European officials are wary of powerful action that might provoke Moscow into a military response.
Belarus has been facing its biggest political crisis since the breakup of the Soviet Union, with tens of thousands of demonstrators rejecting Lukashenko's success in an Aug. 9 vote his opponents say was rigged.
Opponents of Lukashenko, a gruff former collective farm manager in power for 26 years, unveiled the Coordination Council on Tuesday with the stated goal of negotiating a transfer of power.
Its heaps of members incorporate a Nobel Prize-winning writer and the ousted head of Minsk's main drama theatre, in addition to exiled presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose followers say she won the election.
The general prosecutor's office explained the body as designed to seize power, calling the action of setting it up a threat to domestic security, Russia's RIA news agency reported. No people were named as suspects in the situation.
The authorities issued a statement rejecting the accusations and saying its efforts were legal.
"The accusation is completely baseless and without foundation. Our goal is to resolve the crisis without battle. We are not calling for the seizure of power," council member Syarhei Dyleuski, pioneer of a committee of striking workers at the Minsk Tractor Factory, told Reuters.
After times of huge rallies drawing tens of thousands of demonstrators, protests were reduced Thursday but not halted.
Lukashenko announced on Wednesday he had ordered police to clear the streets of the capital, although no action was taken against hundreds of protesters who staged a rally in front of the police headquarters after that day. By lunchtime on Thursday there was no indication of a decisive security operation.
Bigger rallies are expected again over the weekend.
Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who emerged as the consensus resistance candidate following better-known characters were barred from standing, for example her jailed activist husband, has fled into neighbouring Lithuania.
Lithuania's Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis met her at his workplace in Vilnius on Thursday.
He also"assured her that the authorities, together with its partners in Poland, Latvia and Estonia, do and will do everything so that there are free and fair elections in Belarus, also so that her children could when possible hug their daddy in liberty," he wrote on Facebook.
That brought a thinly veiled rebuke in the Kremlin, which stated Moscow would see any contact between overseas officials and the Belarus opposition as interference in Belarusian affairs.
The crisis in Belarus, Russia's most faithful neighbor, is an evaluation for the Kremlin, that has to decide whether to stick with Lukashenko or try to manage a transfer of electricity.
It also poses a challenge to Western leaders trying to avert violence six years after a popular uprising in neighbouring Ukraine brought Russian military intervention and triggered Europe's wildest continuing battle.
Of all Russia's former neighbours, Belarus has the closest political, cultural and economic connection to Moscow, and its heavily fortified boundaries with Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are major frontiers of NATO.
The European Union has rejected Lukashenko's re-election and declared sanctions on Wednesday against some Belarus officials it blames for elections fraud and misuse of protesters.
EU members bordering on Belarus have predicted for a tough line towards Lukashenko, but European officials are wary of powerful action that might provoke Moscow into a military response.