to a decision made by foreign ministers of the 55-nation security grouping in December last year. On 24 March Sergey Lavrov accused OSCE of instigating tensions during the parliamentary election campaign in Belarus, claiming that "long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they (the elections) would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role." It was one of many Russian criticisms of the trans-Atlantic group's vote monitoring activities. Pro-government press and organizations lauded the outcome as a defeat of "orange" political technologies, whereas the liberal opposition traditionally condemned Lukashenko's actions. On March 26, about ten people from liberal movements and parties, joined by occasional passers-by, attempted to carry out an unsanctioned demonstration in support of the Belarusian opposition near the building of the Ministry of International Affairs, but were quickly dispersed by authorities. Reflecting a widespread belief among journalists, Russian commentator Piotr Parhomenko wrote in lenta.ru that Lukashenko's decision to allow the opposition demonstration was a move calculated to divide the opposition, as Kozulin wanted to stop the protests while Milinkevich called for them to go on indefinitely. Lukashenko According to a Belarusian news portal, Lukashenko himself stated that the "last Presidential elections were rigged; I already told this to the Westerners. [...] 93.5% voted for the President Lukashenko [sic]. They said it's not a European number. We made it 86. This really happened. And if [one is to] start recounting the votes, I don't know what to do with them. Before the elections they told us that if we showed the European numbers, our elections would be accepted. We were planning to make the European numbers. But, as you can see, this didn't help either." See also Jeans Revolution A Lesson of Belarusian References External links Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus Coverage of the election ePolitics 2006: Online Campaigning in 2006 Presidential Election in Belarus Guardian editorial on plausibility of un-rigged Lukashenko landslide Presidential elections in Belarus Belarus President Belarus