V. Kavalkova: I did not plan to leave Belarus, they took me as S. Cichanouskaya

Initially on Saturday, the press service of the Opposition Coordination Council reported that Kavalkova had left Belarus and was in Poland.

Immediately, the Belarusian border guards themselves announced that V. Kavalkova had crossed the border on foot.

“September 5 At approximately 2 pm, he walked to the Bruzgiai checkpoint, passed border control and then took a shuttle bus to Polish territory,” the State Border Committee said in a statement.

But now Kavalkova, who belongs to the Presidium of the Coordinating Council and was sentenced to 10 days of arrest at the end of August for organizing an unauthorized event, claims that this was not the case: she was taken to the border by officials and had no intention to leave the country anyway.

According to V. Kavalkova, who held a press conference in Warsaw, when on the day she was to be released, she was taken directly from Akrescino Street to the Kuzhnitsa-Bruzgiai border checkpoint.

“I did not plan or intend to leave Belarus and will be back soon,” the activist said, saying officials had told her that if she did not leave, they would release her very soon.

“They came to the detention center, put me in their car, put the hood on me, gave me a mask and left. I didn’t know where we were going, we arrived at the Bruzgiai border checkpoint.

I crossed the border, they took my belongings and they wanted to take me. But as soon as the bus headed to Warsaw, the Polish border guards asked the driver to take a look at me. The driver followed the news and met me; He said he was glad he was free.

I had no phone with me, only the business card of the Polish ambassador in Minsk Artur Michalski. I called him and he took care of my trip to Warsaw, “said V. Kavalkova.

Belarusian border guards have already commented on the above, and the Interior Ministry has also announced that Kavalkova has been released from Akrescin detention center after her health recovered, saying the woman was on her way to Poland for treatment.

Chichanouskaya withdrew from Belarus shortly after the elections. The Belarusian presidential candidate, like V. Kavalkova, received “help” from Belarusian officials to leave the country; it appears that they took her directly from the polls to the Belarusian border with Lithuania.