Belarusian president flies to Sochi for talks with Russian leader after month of protests

The embattled Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko is holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a meeting seen as crucial to determining whether or not Lukashenko can survive a protest movement against him.

The pair met at Putin’s residence in Sochi, the first foreign trip Lukashenko has made since protests began a month ago.

Protesters hold placards criticising Russian support as they march on president’s Minsk residence

Attempts by Belarus’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, to crush popular protests against him failed on Sunday when more than 100,000 people marched on his residence in the capital, Minsk, with other demonstrations across the country.

There was no sign that the anti-Lukashenko movement is declining or fading away. Instead protesters took to the streets in huge numbers for the fifth weekend in a row, defying riot police who blocked off the city centre with military vehicles.

Calls grow for Lukashenko to step down as president promises tough response

Tens of thousands of protesters in Belarus have defied threats of a government crackdown to march through central Minsk, again voicing demands that the country’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, should step down.

After two Sundays in which the opposition had called huge rallies in Minsk and been left largely unmolested by riot police, this week the president had promised protests would be met with a tough response.