History of Twin Cities

Belarus and Minsk has been in the news due to widespread unrest due the re-election of Alexander Lukashenko who has been the President of the country from the day the position was instated about 26 years ago on 20th July 1994. Lukashenko is sometimes called Last Dictator of Europe by many european journalists due to his authoritarian rule. Minsk being the Capital city was also in the news recently.

Minsk was in the back of my mind because one of the squares in Bangalore is named after that. Here are couple of pictures before and after the metro work of Minsk Square in Bangalore just in front of HAL office.

Bangalore and Minsk are twin cities and this goes back to the time when Belarus was still a part of Russia from 1973 according to Wikipedia page while on the official website of Minsk states that date of agreement is 12/08/1986. Minsk has such relation with 30 cities whereas Bangalore has with four Chengdu, China, Cleveland and San Francisco in USA.

Minsk also has Bangalore Square as well as Park named and here is picture of that.

Minsk in 2020

Let’s hope that Bangalore’s oldest twin city come out of this turmoil in a good way. The protest as per western media is handled with iron fist with lot of the protesters being incarcerated and tortured by the authorities.

Power to all the people of Belarus and wishing them the very best to come out of this turmoil. And since what we hear is from the western media, what really is the truth behind needs to come out from the people themselves but Lukashenko’s being the president for so long is bound to create issues that will not be great for general public. Also closeness to Russia and Putin is also highlighted by western media and Putin ready to send in troops to control the protest is also alarming.