Insatiable

The Belarusian security forces again went on the attack. This time - for relatives of political prisoners

Recently, billboards with the “social advertising” of the Department of Financial Investigations appeared along the Minsk ring road. On the poster - hands that get a bank card from the wallet. And in large letters on the red background: “Article 361-2 of the Criminal Code of Belarus“ Financing extremist activity ”. Imprisonment for a term of 3 to 8 years. " And below - the slogan: "You love to be able to be answered - love to answer."

On January 23, mass detentions in Belarus were accompanied by decisions indicating this particular article. And yet-361-4: “The creation of an extremist formation or participation in it. 84 people were detained in a day. Including Marina Adamovich, the wife of the leader of the Belarusian opposition Nikolai Statkevich. On the morning of January 24, it became known that Marina was arrested for 15 days. But it should not be relieved, thinking that she would be released without criminal case after two weeks. It works not so.

Last year, when in Minsk the trial of the Vasny's human rights defenders began, Russian human rights activist Ekaterina Yanshina came there - to support the Belarusian colleagues. Catherine was detained after the first court hearing and sent for 15 days to a prison that was already known to the whole world in the alley of the surroundings, where administrative arrests are serving. After liberation and deportation, I talked to her. So, the girl said that

The worst thing is the last hours before the release. Because if you suddenly come for you earlier than these 15 days from the moment of detention, it means that you are not released, but transferred to a pre -trial detention center in a criminal case.

In front of Catherine, this happened with several women who served their administrative arrest. And many Belarusians, who are now serving their terms under political articles, were initially convicted of the “administrative”. This is convenient for security forces: they have at least two weeks to start a criminal case.

Nikolai Statkevich, presidential candidate in the 2010 election, was arrested on elections and sentenced to six years in prison. He was released at the end of 2015, and in May 2020 he again ended up in prison. Both terms - under the article “Organization of mass riots” (sanction - from 5 to 15 years). Only if he was given six years for the first time - for a year more than the lower limit, now - 14, for a year less than the highest limit. Moreover, the second time did not even wait for these “mass riots”: they were arrested at the end of May 2020 at the allowed picket to collect signatures. Before the famous Belarusian protests remained even more than two months, but the Belarusian security forces were not petty, they do not cling to such nonsense.

Now Nikolai is in a special regime in the colony of the city of Glubokoye, and there has been no news from him or about him for almost a year: since February 2023, a lawyer has not been allowed to go to him, letters do not leave him, he was deprived of calls, dates and programs.

Perhaps he does not find out that his wife was arrested. Or maybe vice versa: they have already come, joyfully reported - and now enjoy.

Human rights activists of Vasna became aware that in Novopolotsk, during the power raid, the former participant in the Stachkom of the Polymir plant Elena Vinokurov was detained, and in Vitebsk-76-year-old activist Boris Hamaidu. They came to Gomel for the former political prisoner Alexei Romanov, who had already left for the deadline for insulting Lukashenko and was released. But most of all the detainees were among the relatives of political prisoners.

On January 24, everything continued.

If the night before, human rights activists talked about 84 detainees, then in the middle of the next day their number exceeded a hundred. Those relatives who, unlike Marina Adamovich, were able to return home after searches and interrogations, told human rights activists that they were demanded to tell them who paid them the delivery of products. The fact is that one of the initiatives of Belarusian solidarity is the Ineedhelpby project, through which everyone who wants to help the families of political prisoners could pay for the delivery of a two -week set of products. No extremism is just helping bread. But on the day when the security forces went home, the project was recognized as extremist. And in Belarus, this is easily transformed into a criminal case with the accused, who simply accepted gratitude to the pasta packet and cereals from strangers who issued delivery for them.

Belarusian solidarity is that the regime has not yet been able to destroy.

He, this regime, was able to destroy protests, which was not equal in the history of modern Belarus. He was able to plant several thousand people from the participants in those protests to intimidate everyone else. He was able to destroy all manifestations of national consciousness, grabbing from the crowd of those who have socks with white-red ornaments or sneakers of the wrong color. He was able to make arrests for the protests of a three -year ago with an ongoing reality so that no one could feel safe.

But the Belarusian regime still could not do one-to end solidarity. It, as water, flows from one channel to another, from the project to the project, from the initiative to the initiative. Last year, Belarusians began to actively plant for donates in all kinds of solidarity funds registered in Lithuania and Poland, helping families political prisoners from abroad. (Last week, a 50-year-old political prisoner Vadim Khsko, who was convicted of the donates, died in the Shklovskaya colony.) But by that time so many Belarusians fled abroad that they began to collect money to help the families of prisoners on their own, without involving those who remained in the country. New forms and methods of help appeared, horizontal solidarity blossomed with magnificent color, when help comes not from the organization, but from the compatriot. And payment for grocery delivery is the easiest and most innocent way to help. So there is nothing surprising in the recognition of the Ineedhelpby project with an extremist formation.

Surprisingly different: the level of insatitude. It would seem, celebrate the victory, ghouls: you threw out hundreds of thousands of active educated Belarusians from the country, you abandoned several thousand of the same active educated Belarusians in prisons, you created such an atmosphere in the country that it is scary to sneeze on the street, because this can attract unnecessary attention. With so many broken lives, torn families that collapsed hopes could be saturated with any monster. Not this one.