Minsk authorities have forbidden the Entrepreneurs’ March appointed or March 14. Head of the republican association Perspectiva Anatol Shumchanka and ex-political prisoner and social-democratic activist Mikalai Statkevich applied for the action.
However, the event had started being advertised in mass media and on the Internet before the organizers received officials’ permission, deputy head of Minsk City Executive Committee Ihar Karpenka explained. It is forbidden by the law. Moreover, ‘the source of financing of the mass event was not indicated by the organizers’.
“Other people applied for an action appointed for the same day – March 14, 2016”, the official added. It was done by Anatol Laybedzka, leader of the United Civil Party. He withdrew his appeal later but it was too late. Perspectiva is accusing Lyabedzka of doing it on purpose and of trying to disrupt the march. ‘The authorities were simply scared’, the association representatives think.
Many private entrepreneurs stopped working on January 1 because the President’s decree #222 obliges sellers of light industry goods to have certificates for the goods produced outside of the Customs Union. However, only a few hundred people (including entrepreneurs from the provinces) participated in the protest actions in Minsk. Perspectiva refrained from street actions because it was hoping to start a dialogue with the authorities. The Entrepreneurs’ March was planned not long ago but the authorities have not allowed it.
