What is the sound of a one-armed Belarusian clapping?

In recent weeks, Belarusian activists have adopted a strategy of meeting in Minsk’s October square to clap in wordless protest against Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government. Not surprisingly, authorities have clamped down on the practice, with occasionally surreal results: A court in Belarus fined a one-armed man for taking part in unsanctioned "clapping" protests in Minsk earlier ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

In recent weeks, Belarusian activists have adopted a strategy of meeting in Minsk's October square to clap in wordless protest against Aleksandr Lukashenko's government. Not surprisingly, authorities have clamped down on the practice, with occasionally surreal results:

In recent weeks, Belarusian activists have adopted a strategy of meeting in Minsk’s October square to clap in wordless protest against Aleksandr Lukashenko’s government. Not surprisingly, authorities have clamped down on the practice, with occasionally surreal results:

A court in Belarus fined a one-armed man for taking part in unsanctioned "clapping" protests in Minsk earlier in the week, Belarusian information website Khartiya-97 reported on Friday.

"The court ruled that the disabled man by the name of Konstantin will have to pay a fine of 1.05 million Belarusian rubles [some $200]," the website said.

The man was found guilty by the court of clapping in a public place. The fact that the man was clapping was proved by one of the witnesses during the trial.

No explanations were given on how the man was able to clap with only one hand.

Also worth noting is that the above blockquote comes from the state-owned Russian wire service RIA-Novosti, which has been getting awfully snarky lately in its coverage of erstwhile Russian ally Lukasehnko.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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