Presidency of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Mikhail Myasnikovich Vsevolod Yanchevski with the support of: Boris Yeltsin Zianon Pazniak Vasil Bykaŭ Mikola Statkevich The "Minsk Spring" or "Belarusian Spring" (Belarusian: "Мінская вясна", romanized: "Minskaja viasna", "Беларуская вясна", "Biełaruskaja viasna") was a series of mass street protests in 1996 and 1997 against the increasingly-authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.

[1] Officially, the public voted in favor of the amendments by a wide majority, although many countries, including European Union member states and the United States sharply criticized the conditions under which the referendum was held as "riddled with violations of democratic norms" and refused to recognize its results: "The constitutional referendum occurred in a repressive political environment and with pervasive government control of the media.

Through this control, the Government denied the voters access to the views of the opposition--including members of Parliament and of the Constitutional Court".

They began to apply a wide range of repressive measures against their participants – from brutal police force to fines and administrative arrests to expulsion of students and dismissal of employees on political grounds.

In violation of the terms of both the Belarusian constitution and international instruments such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Belarus is a state party, Lukashenka issued a draconian decree in March 1997, codified into law later that year, which severely limited the right to citizens to demonstrate, regulating the even the types of symbols, flags, and banners participants may use.