MINSK, 6 August (BelTA) – Street protests in Belarus are staged for the sake of one goal – to overthrow the government. Chairman of the Belarusian state television and radio company Belteleradiocompany Ivan Eismont expressed his opinion on the air of the TV channel Belarus One, BelTA has learned.
The official believes: “Expressing an alternative point of view, including in the street, is normal. We have places specifically designated for it. There is a simple procedure as well – you can take to the streets after notifying the authorities of it. People take to streets in Poland, Germany, France, and the UK. But in my opinion, only in our country all the street actions are connected to one goal – to overthrow the government. Mothers fight for their rights in the UK. In Germany ‘green' activists clash with police. Some other people defend their rights – milk is spilt in streets of Brussels. In Belarus they always talk about the end goal of deposing the constitutionally instituted authorities.”
Vitaly Demirov, an analyst of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research (BISR), pointed out that a revolution can be prompted by objective reasons when some class of people comes to recognize and then defend its own interests over a certain period of time. Or a revolution can be prompted by artificial reasons. In his words, artificial reasons are not based on ideology and solid political integrity. A heterogeneous group of people gets involved, the expert noted. Vitaly Demirov added that these people are easy to manipulate as a crowd by using Internet technologies to send the relevant messages. People may read these messages out of curiosity at first but later on they follow instructions and appeals.
“Why do some ‘alternative presidential candidates' in Belarus speak in public while consulting their papers? Because these papers contain catchphrases invented by spin doctors,” said Dmitry Zhuk, Director – Editor in Chief of the publishing house Belarus Segodnya. “After all, what they say is not important. It is important to periodically pronounce the catchphrases that the audience expects. The audience doesn't care what they say in between. The speakers might as well read out the Bible in Arabic. To hear these phrases is what matters. These phrases shape behavioral instincts and people resort to active actions after certain prompts. It is the human psychology, it is unavoidable. When there is a crowd, rhythmic music, these things work with 250% efficiency.”
