President of #Belarus: It's hard to imagine #BRICS without China #Belarusian President Aleksandr #Lukashenko praised China's contribution to BRICS in an exclusive interview with #CGTN. He called China, "the first country" and one of the main pillars of BRICS. "Without China, it is difficult to talk about intensive development in the BRICS organization itself," he further explained. | CGTN Frontline

TENSIONS RISING: New video shows Belarus' embattled president Alexander Lukashenko — brandishing an assault rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest — as he emerges from a helicopter at the Palace of Independence in Minsk, where he inspected riot police after tens of thousand of peaceful protesters marched up to the state complex but were stopped by authorities. | ABC World News Tonight with David Muir

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko was sworn in for the seventh time as the president of the nine-million-strong post-Soviet nation | Reuters