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Since Monday morning there has been no sign of life from the 38-year-old opponent. After Belarusian border guards initially claimed that he had left for Ukraine, he is now said to have been arrested.
Open questions about whereabouts: According to the Belarusian border guards, Maria Kolesnikova (photographed on the occasion of a demonstration on August 30 in Minsk) wanted to travel to Ukraine.
Photo: Keystone
Since Monday there have been no traces of opposition politics Maria Kolesnikowa. After her disappearance, the 38-year-old woman was arrested in Belarus, according to border guards. As of Tuesday morning, however, there was still uncertainty about her exact whereabouts. Previously there had been reports that she was supposed to be in Ukraine.
As the border guards announced, Kolesnikova allegedly wanted to travel to Ukraine. She had arrived at the checkpoint in a car with her colleague Ivan Kravtsov and her spokesman Anton Rodnenkow. The two men would have crossed the border. This was also confirmed by the Ukrainian side. Earlier it was reported that the three had gone to Ukraine. Information provided by the authorities cannot be independently verified. According to border guards, the arrest was made to “clarify the circumstances.” But no details were given.
Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook about an attempted deportation. “Maria Kolesnikova could not be deported from Belarus because this brave woman made her deportation across the border impossible through her actions.” The media wrote, citing unspecified sources, that the opposition party should have broken their passports.
Do not leave the country voluntarily
There has been no sign of life from her since Monday morning. The Coordinating Council assumed that Kolesnikova had been abducted by strangers in the center of the capital, Minsk. The Interior Ministry had stated that it had not arrested the opposition.
According to her own statements, the coordinating council of the democracy movement had no information about where Kolesnikova was staying. She is a member of this body of civil society in Belarus. Also, the city council did not know where the two employees were. “We can only confirm the fact that Maria Kolesnikova did not want to leave Belarus voluntarily.”
No arrest, no kidnapping?
The 38-year-old Kolesnikova, who lived in Stuttgart for many years and managed cultural projects there, is one of the most important opposition figures who oppose Lukashenko. Some of the members of the Coordination Council had been previously arrested or left the country. Presidential candidate Svetlana Tichanovaskaya, who fled to Lithuania after the elections, spoke of an attempt by the government to hamper the work of the Coordination Council. “But that won’t stop us,” he wrote on the Telegram news channel. Tichanowskaja’s confidante, Olga Kowalkowa, had left for Poland after serving a prison sentence.
Tichanovskaya demanded the immediate release of his colleague. “The task of the coordination council is to be a platform for negotiations,” said the 37-year-old, who faced the head of state and is in the EU country Lithuania. “There is no other solution, and Lukashenko has to acknowledge this.” He couldn’t just take people hostage.
Read here a portrait of Kolesnikova from September 1 – and here you have one Interview that the politician conducted with this newspaper in mid-August.
Your boss wanted to run for president
Kolesnikova works for former bank director Viktor Babariko, who wanted to run for president. Lukashenko had him arrested before the elections. The criminal case is considered politically motivated. Together with Babariko he founded a new party. His team said the border guard had not given an attorney any information about the motives or location of the arrest.
The protests against Lukashenko are carried out in Belarus for more than four weeks. The background for this is the presidential elections, in which he was 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.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius blamed the Minsk government for Kolesnikova’s disappearance and called for her immediate release. “The abduction of M. Kolesnikova in the center of Minsk is a disgrace,” Linkevicius wrote on Twitter. “Instead of talking to the people of Belarus, the outgoing leadership is cynically trying to eliminate one by one.” This is reminiscent of Stalinist methods.
Lukashenko rejects the talks
The authoritarian head of state Lukashenko continues to reject talks with the opposition. This is not an opposition. Everything it offers is a disaster for Belarus, ”the president said in an interview with various Russian state media on Tuesday. The 66-year-old claimed that his opponents wanted to “cut ties with fraternal 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: “Maybe I’ll be in the post too long”
At the same time, Lukashenko did not rule out new elections after a constitutional amendment. “We are ready to reform the constitution,” he said. Lukashenko’s opponents accuse him of just trying to buy time with this proposal. The political crisis in Belarus has persisted since the presidential elections a month ago. Lukashenko had been declared the winner with 80.1 percent of the votes. The election is criticized internationally for being grossly falsified.
Lukashenko has been in power for 26 years. He said, “Yeah, maybe I’ve been in the position a bit longer. Maybe they will not only show me on television, but also on all corners ”. There have been daily protests against the head of state since the elections. He was “humanly offended” by the actions, the president said in the interview. But part of the population has forgotten what the country was like 20 years ago.
NATO Secretary General: Unacceptable Violations of the Rules
Jens Stoltenberg described the arbitrary arrests and kidnappings of opposition activists in Belarus as “unacceptable violations of international norms”. Belarusian authorities have been called upon to demonstrate full respect for fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest, the NATO secretary-general announced Tuesday after phone calls with the foreign ministers of the Baltic countries and Poland.
All the allies supported a sovereign and independent Belarus. “Both Minsk and Moscow must respect the right of the Belarusian people to determine their own future,” said the Norwegian.
Stoltenberg again warned against using unsubstantiated claims as a pretext to crack down on peaceful protests. There is no NATO mobilization in the region, he emphasized in view of the corresponding statements by Belarusian politicians.
