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Recently, the Russian newspaper M. Kalesnikava told her that being in the spotlight stresses her out. “It just came to our attention then. It would be easier for us if we had a leader,” says Kommersant.
Today, M. Kalesnikava is the only representative of the women’s trio left in Belarus. Sviatlana Cichanouskaja, who was declared the winner of the elections, soon fled to Lithuania, and Veranika Capkala is currently in Poland. M. Kalesnikava, like many of her colleagues, is currently behind bars.
AFP / Scanpix photo / Veranika Capkala and Sviatlana Cichanouskaya meet in Poland
V. Babaryka led him into politics
M. Kalesnikava was born in 1982 into a family of two engineers and grew up in Minsk with her sister. Although he was briefly involved in the activities of the opposition Youth Front, he eventually began to focus on music.
At the age of nine he began to play the flute, at 17 he was already teaching others at a local school. After graduating from the State Academy of Music, she continued her studies in Germany, where she became involved in avant-garde music both as a performer and as a manager, writes the Financial Times.
Deutsche Welle writes that M. Kalesnikava has previously developed several international projects that promote cultural exchanges between Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Germany.
Martin Schuttler, a composer and music teacher who knew M. Kalesnikava, assured the Financial Times that he had never imagined that she could get involved in Belarusian politics in this way.
Reuters / Photo by Scanpix / Maryja Kalesnikava
“It just came to our knowledge then in hindsight this doesn’t surprise me at all. She is primarily people-centered, interested in sharing, understanding, common development and solidarity, and she takes responsibility, ”said Schuttler.
He assured Deutsche Welle that Kalesnikava was an “incredibly strong personality” as well as “incredibly optimistic, active and energetic.”
“They won’t stop whatever I’m doing,” he added.
For the Russian composer Sergei Nevsky, who worked with M. Kalesnikava, his transition to politics seemed obvious.
“When you try to fundamentally change something in the culture in an authoritarian country, sooner or later you get involved in politics. We see a completely normal evolution. “Maryja became a manager from a musician, a politician from a manager,” Nevsky told the Financial Times.
Viktor Babaryka, who at the time held the post of Belgazprombank, a bank controlled by the Russian company Gazprom, became the catalyst for the Kalesnikava changes.
„Scanpix“ / ITAR-TASS nuotr./Viktaras Babaryka
In 2017, M. Kalesnikava asked her for support for a musical event. They had already collaborated on various projects when V. Babaryka decided to run for the presidency in May 2020 and asked M.Kalesnikava to lead his campaign.
“Their values definitely match, so I understand why he did it,” Kalesnikava’s sister, Tacjana Khomic, told the Financial Times. “Of course she was a little worried, but our family supported her.”
However, in July, more than 367 thousand. signatures collected V. Babaryka found himself behind bars in the investigation of a criminal case for alleged tax evasion and money laundering.
“Never leave Belarus”
Kalesnikava told Deutsche Welle in August that she did not fear repression.
“Anyone can be arrested on the street, on the stairs or even at home. But knowing that doesn’t stop or scare me. “I know that the changes taking place in Belarusian society cannot be undone,” he said.
On Monday, it was reported that M. Kalesnikavas was put on a bus in the city center by masked men in civilian clothes. It later emerged that she, one of the members of the presidium of the Opposition Coordination Council, had been forcibly deported to Ukraine.
Kalesnikava’s lawyer assured that the opponent was threatened: if she did not leave Ukraine voluntarily, she would be deported “alive or in parts.” To avoid deportation, M. Kalesnikava tore up her passport at the border.
For its part, state media reported that Kalesnikava had been detained while trying to illegally cross the border into Ukraine.
VIDEO: A video has been released of Ms. Kalesnikava crossing the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
“Maryja always said that she would not leave Belarus because her friends were detained here. About 20 or 30 of her friends are now in jail,” her sister T. Chomič told the Financial Times.
Kalesnikava, who was held in Minsk’s first remand prison this week, was transferred to Žodzin on Saturday, Hleb Hermannuk, V. Babaryka’s staff representative, told the Interfax news agency.
“She is a strong woman, a tough nut to crack. She has no children and she will not be intimidated by threats of what will happen to others,” a Belarusian diplomat told the Financial Times.
Kalesnikava’s sister, T. Chomič, told the newspaper that according to the lawyer’s statements, the opposition was fine. “It just came to our attention then. Even now she doesn’t give up,” she said.
Repression against the Coordinating Council
The protests in Belarus have lasted since August 9, when authorities announced that the country’s leader, Lukashenko, had won the presidential elections by a wide margin.
Despite the crackdown, more than 100,000 people took to the streets in Minsk on Sundays last month. people, protests are also taking place in other Belarusian cities.
VIDEO: Aleksiyevich after trying to break into his apartment: “What is happening is terror against people”
More than 7,000 have been arrested since the protests began. persons. Those who have left the detention centers and the doctors who treat them speak of torture.
After leaving Lithuania, S. Cichanouskaja and his colleagues established the Coordination Council, which called for the start of a dialogue, which would also discuss the organization of presidential elections.
Almost all the members of the Presidium of the Coordinating Council were detained or forced to leave the country. Currently, only the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, the writer Sviatlana Aleksiyevich, is in Belarus and in general. When she announced this week that strangers were breaking into her home, the writers were on duty at the apartment and were protected by European diplomats.
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