In the Belarusian city of Hrodna a drunk man tried to destroy an agitation stand and attacked a pensioner who was collecting signatures for nominating opposition politician Anatol Lyabedzka a presidential candidate.
The man came at 11:30 am, says activist Mikalai Voran. After insulting Mr Voran and politician Lyabedzka, the bully turned the stand and hit the campaigner with a bottle on his chest.
“When he saw portraits of Lyabedzka together with Bush, Merkel and Kubilius, he started shouting that we are the 5th column and American spies who are working only for dollars. He started a fight,” pensioner Voran says. But soon the attacker got into a taxi and drove away.
Half an hour later, when journalists came to the scene, the man came back in a company of a ‘brother’. This ‘brother’ was sober, his face was hidden behind dark glasses, and he was trying to film what was happening by his mobile phone.
The drunk bully began to bluster out threats and insults again, but this time his attention was focused on journalists who, in his words, ‘betrayed their Motherland’. The man called himself ‘Russian’. The man made several attempts to destroy reporters’ cameras. When he started to provoke a fight again, Mr Voran called the police officers who took the abuser into their van.
