MOSCOW — Aleksandr G. Lukashenko was sworn in for a sixth time period as president of Belarus in a secret ceremony on Wednesday — and used the event to declare victory over protesters who have gathered in large numbers for greater than a month to contest a re-election that they name fraudulent.
“That is the day of our victory, a convincing and fateful one,” Mr. Lukashenko advised about 700 company invited to his inauguration, in keeping with a transcript published on the presidential web site. “We didn’t simply elect the nation’s president. We defended our values, our peaceable life, our sovereignty and independence.”
An opposition chief, Pavel Latushko, denounced the president’s transfer and known as on the general public “to immediately start a civil disobedience campaign.”
The inauguration, which might usually be introduced prematurely as a significant state event and by regulation have to be broadcast stay on tv, was performed underneath wraps on the Independence Palace, Mr. Lukashenko’s grand residence within the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
The choice to maintain the ceremony out of public view was clearly made to keep away from setting off mass demonstrations of the type which have drawn tens of thousands of individuals to the streets of Minsk for seven Sundays in a row for the reason that election on Aug. 9.
Footage of the ceremony, printed on-line, confirmed Mr. Lukashenko’s motorcade driving through the city, which had been cleared of pedestrians and automobiles.
Regardless of the inauguration, Mr. Lukashenko, who has been in energy since 1994, nonetheless faces the deepest disaster of his political profession. Not acknowledged as a authentic chief of Belarus by Western nations and plenty of Belarusians, his destiny is now largely within the arms of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. That nation and China had been the one main powers to acknowledge the August election.
Throughout a current go to to Russia, Mr. Lukashenko, 66, secured a $1.5 billion mortgage from Mr. Putin, who had earlier promised to ship a Russian safety drive if issues acquired uncontrolled.
Along with some worldwide stress, Mr. Lukashenko continues to be cornered at house by protesters who’ve turned up in such numbers that riot law enforcement officials have been unable to disperse them. Over all, greater than 10,000 individuals have been arrested through the protests. Tons of extra have been tortured, significantly within the early days of the demonstrations, according to the United Nations.
Mr. Lukashenko initially disregarded the protests, making an attempt to quash them with torture, tear gas and rubber bullets, and calling them a foreign-born plot to weaken his grip over Belarus and carve up slices of its territory.
Mr. Latushko — Mr. Lukashenko’s former ambassador to Washington and Paris who joined the opposition within the first levels of the protests — known as the inauguration on Wednesday “a particular operation.”
“Since right now he’s not the president of Belarus, he’s simply the top of the riot police who with none insignia function on the streets,” Mr. Latushko stated in an announcement. “For us, the residents of Belarus, and for the world neighborhood, he’s a no person.”
