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Witness: members of the opposition resisted expulsion; the whereabouts are not yet clear; Lukashenko continues to reject talks with the opposition.
8.44 pm, September 8, 2020
Following her disappearance, the well-known opposition politician Maria Kolesnikova was detained in Belarus (Belarus) according to border guards. The opposition emphasized that they should be removed from the country against their will. However, according to the authorities, he allegedly wanted to travel to Ukraine. His whereabouts were initially unclear. The opposition demanded his immediate release. The 38-year-old is one of the main leaders of the protests against the authoritarian head of state Alexander Lukashenko..
Kolesnikova disappeared without a trace on Monday. According to border guards on Tuesday, she is said to have been taken to a border crossing in the south of the country with her employee Ivan Kravtsov and her spokesman Anton Rodnenkow. Kolesnikova tore up her passport at the border to avoid a forced departurethe two men said later at a press conference in Kiev. She then returned to the Belarusian border crossing, where she is said to have been arrested. Her colleagues crossed the border into Ukraine because they feared they would also be arrested. “Maria is a real hero,” Rodnenkow said. You do not want to leave Belarus under any circumstances.
Lukashenko said in an interview with journalists from Russian state media that Kolesnikova allegedly wanted to flee to Ukraine with her sister.. Border officials prevented them from doing so. Some of the members of the Coordination Council had been previously arrested or left the country. Kolesnikova works for former bank director Viktor Babariko, who wanted to run for president.
The arrest was made “to clarify the circumstances,” according to authorities. No details were given. The opposition also confirmed the arrest, but had no further details. She received information that Kolesnikova was being held in a prison in the south of the country.
In the evening, numerous people gathered in Minsk in solidarity with Kolesnikova. The images showed how the emergency services masked at least one Brutally detained a dozen protesters and dispersed people.
Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko spoke on Facebook of an attempted deportation. “Maria Kolesnikova could not be deported from Belarus because this brave woman made her deportation across the border impossible for her actions.”
Doubts about the representation of border protection
The Coordination Council initially assumed on Monday that Kolesnikova had been abducted by strangers in the center of the capital, Minsk. Observers also doubted the description of border protection and spoke of a selective approach on the part of the authorities. Kolesnikova repeatedly appeared in protests against Lukashenko and was cheered on by protesters. She herself had stressed that she did not want to leave the country.
The opposition party Svetlana Tichanowskaja demanded the immediate release of her campaign partner.. “The task of the coordinating council is to be a platform for negotiations,” said the 37-year-old, who faced the head of state and remains in the EU country Lithuania. “There is no other solution and Lukashenko has to acknowledge this.” He couldn’t just take people hostage. She is calling for tougher sanctions against the government, she told a Council of Europe committee.
The background to the protests is the presidential elections of more than four weeks ago. Lukashenko was then declared the winner with 80.1 percent of the votes. However, the opposition considers Tichanovskaya to be the real winner. The vote is criticized internationally for being grossly falsified.
In the interview with Russian state television, the president refused to hold talks with members of the opposition.. “This is not an opposition. Everything it offers is a disaster for Belarus,” he said. The 66-year-old claimed that his opponents wanted to break “ties with brotherly Russia.” Minsk, on the other hand, wants further integration with Moscow. The two countries agreed to closer cooperation 20 years ago on a state of the Union treaty.
The opposition wants to achieve a peaceful change of power through dialogue through a coordinating council. Their representatives had given the authoritarian leadership several talks. In addition, the agency wants to continue working with Russia.
Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years. She said, “Yeah, maybe I’ll be in the post too long. Maybe they won’t just show me on TV, but also on every corner.”
