Protesters demanding a new election in Belarus, following the rigged 2006 Belarusian presidential election, clash with riot police. Opposition leader Aleksander Kozulin is among several protesters arrested.

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) with a population of 9.1 million. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into six regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city; it is administered separately as a city with special status.

The Belarusian presidential election was held on 19 March 2006. Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko secured his third term, defeating three other candidates: unified democratic opposition candidate Alaksandar Milinkievič, Sergei Gaidukevich, and Alyaksandr Kazulin.

Alyaksandr Kazulin is the former leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party and one of the candidates who ran for the office of President of Belarus on 19 March 2006. He was a rector of the Belarusian State University (BSU) from 1996 to 2003 and a government minister serving under Belarus President Lukashenko but later fell out of favor. He holds a PhD in mathematics and pedagogy.