Translated material
"All blue, all beaten"
The authorities of Belarus accused the Open Russia employee Artyom Vyzhenkov of participating in the riots, but suddenly released five days after a hard detention. We tell how it was
Speaking on Friday August 14, 2020 about the foreigners "who came in Belarus" - including "open Russia" - Alexander Lukashenko, most likely, had in mind the Russian Artem Vyzhenkov, an activist of Open Russia. The state media of Belarus on August 11 called him "a detained provocateur." "Medusa" says what Verezhenkov did in Minsk, who became a suspect under the article of the Belarusian Criminal Code 293.2 (participation in riots) and freed on August 15.
"Bright events"
23-year-old Igor Rogov and 38-year-old Artem Vyzhenkov arrived in Minsk the day before the election of the President of Belarus, on August 8, 2020. They gathered, tells Rogov in an interview with Medusa, to watch the elections - he himself was an observer in the elections from Open Russia in Mordovia, and Vyzhenkov, who was part of the Federal Council of Postcards, followed the elections for almost ten years. They crossed the border with Belarus by bus for trips to sanatorium-resort treatment-differently, explains the horns, it was impossible to get into the country. Having settled in an apartment rented through Airbnb, the next day they went to polling stations - to communicate with people. On August 10, horns and sophisticons disappeared.
“We did not expect trouble, we did everything as openly as possible. - tells Medusa the coordinator of Open Russia Andrei Pivovarov. - We from Russia see that there are bright events in Belarus. Artyom Vyzhenkov has, I, Igor Rogov, has quite a lot of observation experience [for elections] and the events that took place in Belarus, could not but arouse our interest. We tried to submit documents as observers through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus - there was a special form, but there was no answer, although we filed everything within the deadline and tried to get approval. ”
Six observers of Open Russia went to Belarus in different ways. From six to Minsk, three reached: Andrei Pivovarov detained Russian border guards on the Belarusian border. Two other observers - Petersburgers Alexander Fedoseev and Daniil Potapov - Belarusian border guards broke their passports.
In addition to Verezhenkov and Rogov, only Vladimir Zhilkin managed to get to Minsk - the coordinator of Open Russia in Tambov.
“We arrived, had dinner together and parted. The next day, I interviewed the observers who were in the plots, talked with the inhabitants of Minsk - and with those who were for Lukashenko and those who are against. From some random conversations, I understood that people were going to vote protestedly-that is, it cannot be said that they were all fans of Tikhanovskaya. This was what we have called “smart voting” - that is, for the alternative to Lukashenko. There were not so many people who were going to vote against everyone, ”Zhilkin recalls in an interview with Medusa.
Rogs and Vyzhenkov also went to polling stations. They had every right to observe the elections, Andrei Pivovarov was convinced. “He and Rogov made a broadcast, led her openly, without lies talked about what was happening,” he says.
Rogov and Verezhenkov had one phone for two, and Zhilkin periodically called him.
“We agreed to meet the day after the election. With Artem, I spoke the last time on August 10 in the area of eight in the evening. His voice was calm, sober. He was at home. Such a situation around, we all understood that we must maintain adequacy and sober mind. We decided to meet later. I was in the area of [metro station] "Nemigi", then from there I reached Pushkinskaya. I called Artem again, there are already long beeps. I thought I lost the guys in the crowd. He called all night, but no one answered. "
The last message from Rogov and Verezhenkov in the general chat did not cause anxiety. “Igor Rogov wrote that everything is cool, there are a lot of people on the streets, everyone helps each other,” says Pivovarov. But on the morning of August 11, an unfamiliar man already answered Zhilkin on their phone.
On the recording of this bell laid out by Zhilkin in his telegram channel, a conversation with a stranger is as follows:
Decoding Zhilkin's call
- Yes!
- Hello, hello, everyone lost you.
- Happens.
- Are you all fine?
- Not good.
- Where are you?
- I can't speak.
- And who says?
-Friend.
- Well, what friend?
- Friend, just friend.
- Well, can you call it, friend?
- I can't. There is no way.
- And what about the guys?
- They took it.
- Where are they now?
“I can’t, everyone is going.”
He had no one to seek help, recalls Zhilkin. All Belarusian contacts were chopped off, people did not get in touch. Many, he recalls, ceased to communicate on the election day - so, the acquaintance of Artem from the United Staff of the opposition, with whom he called up on the way to Minsk, stopped answering calls.
In the last video from Artyom, who has reached the common chat after his detention, it is important to go along the street, shooting how riot police grab ordinary people.
From Monday, the telephone of Rogov and Verezhenkov was turned off. On Tuesday, Pivovarov from Open Russia went to the Embassy of Belarus and the Foreign Ministry. When he left after these meetings, one of the Belarusian State Media has already shown a plot entitled “Video of the Destroy of Provocators” .
Found "provocateurs"
Vyugnkov and horns fell on the video published by the BelTA State Information Agency. In this video , several people lie face down at the fence. Then the male voice asks Artyom Vyzhenkov: "Place of residence?" He replies: "Russia, the city of Tver." Velenkov has abrasions on the face. To the question "What are we doing here?" He answers: rested, for a tourist purpose he came to Minsk. " “He arrived in the sanatorium, today was resting in Minsk with a friend,” says Igor Rogov, he also lies face down on the ground. And he adds that he was in the sanatorium "Cranes".
This video was shot on the territory of the insulation center of offenders (CIP) in the 1st Lane of the surroundings in Minsk. The shooting was carried out in the courtyard, where people lay on top of each other. Rogov, the liberation of which from the CIP, the employees of the Russian embassy achieved, with horror recalls what happened to him and Vuzhenkov that evening.
“I was going to not only watch the elections in Minsk, but also write an article for Novaya Gazeta as a freelance correspondent. On the first day, everything turned out as I wanted - I was next to the sites, looked what was happening there, what lines. Neither I nor Artyom managed to go to the site - they didn’t even let official observers go there, we only took off the lines and the people who were going to vote. The next day, we walked with Artem on the street, we decided to stay away from all protests - we understood that it was dangerous there, although we really wanted to shoot. We went to the center in the evening, staggered - for no reason I just turned my head, and several riot police officers are already running to me, I don’t understand what was happening, they grab me, twist, start to beat me, ”says Rogov.
With Artyom Vyzhenkov, they saw in a car carrier: “I realized that it was Artem who was dragged into a car zak only by his voice, by his screams - and he was beaten, like me, that there is urine. I myself said only one phrase: “I am a Russian citizen, please call the embassy,” but they continued to beat me. They grinned and said: "Look, there is a citizen of Russia!" And beat. "
Avtosak brought Rogov and Vyugnkov to CIP in the alley of the surroundings, where they were kept on bare ground for six hours. Rogov recalls: “There were not enough places in the cells. All night we lay on the ground, we were beaten and mocked us. I still have fifty percent of my body covered with bruises. Hodo-brain injury, severe concussion. We were constantly beaten and humiliated psychologically - they did not give a drink or go to the toilet. I saw water twice - one two -liter bottle of 40 people. We slept in turn, buried their faces in the fence. ”
“Then an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, or our embassy, arrived, already then my head did not understand. I met [Medusa journalist] Maxim Solopov , the employees urgently pulled us out and evacuated us. I left barefoot from there, then the ambassador bought my boots ” - so Rogov recalls his release on the evening of August 11.
But Artyom Vyzhenkov, the embassy’s employees could not pick up the CIP. “I didn’t want to go without him-I knew that he was worried about what I had just worried, only I could leave, but he could not,” says Rogov, who was already hospitalized in Moscow with traumatic brain injuries.
He himself admits that he was pulled out of a conclusion only thanks to the editorial assignment from Novaya Gazeta.
Open person
A native of Tver, lawyer Artem Vyzhenkov became a civil activist after the election to the State Duma in 2011. “I have been familiar with Vyzhenkov since 2012. At that time, he already headed the regional branch of our movement. He told me that for a long time he was an entrepreneur , then because of social activities he began difficulties with law enforcement agencies. We always have all the elections in the Tver region since 2013 have been held with his participation. He participated in various inter -regional missions: at the end of 2017 he was in Klin, where he could stop falsification with a home voting, ”says Vitaly Averin, a member of the Voice Council.
The experienced observer is called Verezhenkov and the head of the Voice movement Grigory Melkonian: “Only the best recommendations can be given to him. He was a coach for novice observers, a good specialist. He even enters from us in the advisory public council under the election commission of the Tver region. ” Melkonian calls Vyugnkov an adequate and calm person.
In Tver, Verezhenkov was well known - for example, in 2015, on his initiative, the city joined the project “Last Address”. Together with the project manager, journalist Sergey Parkhomenko, Vyzhenkov hung a sign about those who were shot at the time of the Stalinist repressions at the house on Radishchev Street. Later, when the tablet was removed by decision of the city administration, Vyugnkov methodically and persistently demanded it to be returned.
“I have been familiar with Artem for three years - we even went to rest together. He is very kind, very open, you can always consult with him, to find support, ”says Igor Rogov about a friend.
Red rag for the Belarusian authorities
On August 13, it became known that Verezhenkov was called suspects in a criminal case under Article 293.2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code - “Participation in the Riots”. In IvS Minsk, he was in a clothing torn to shreds, with a face covered with deep abrasions. Anton Gashinsky’s lawyer “Human Rights Rights Protection” describes his “Human Rights Protection” as “bad”: “All blue, all beaten. He says that he was not on the rally, he walked along the street with his acquaintance, he was interested, he decided to come to see, then they turned around and saw that someone was running after them. Blows on the head. "
If Verezhenkov was found guilty, he would have threatened imprisonment from three to eight years. “They took his phone, knocked out a password under the blows. Now any picture, any repost - and that’s it, ”is experiencing horns in a conversation with Medusa, when the release of Artyom Vyzhenkov was not yet known.
On Saturday 15, the fate of Artyom Vyzhenkov was concerned about the Russian Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova: according to TASS, she asked the Russian ambassador to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev to report the reasons for the detention and conditions of the detention of Vyugnkov and other Russian citizens. In the evening of the same day, V - Vyzhenkov was released. Later, Human Rights Cards reported that he was already in Russia.
Svetlana Reiters and Anastasia Yakreva