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Belarusian authorities have charged opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova with “actions aimed at undermining national security”, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The position, announced by the country’s investigation committee, is the latest move in an offensive against opposition leaders by the embattled president, Alexander Lukashenko, who has lost legitimacy among much of the population but retains the support of the law enforcement.
Kolesnikova thwarted an attempt by Lukashenko’s security agents to forcibly deport her last week by tearing up her passport at the border with Ukraine. She later said in a statement that security officials had told her she would leave the country “alive or in pieces.” She is currently in police custody.
Kolesnikova, 38, a flute player who has said it is not considered a politician, has become one of the highest-profile protest leaders in Belarus over the past month, as Belarusians demonstrated against the continued government of Lukashenko. She was one of seven people on the board of a coordinating council created to transfer power to Lukashenko. All except Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich have been jailed or deported.
In a speech to senior officials on Wednesday, Lukashenko said he had no plans to resign. “We had the vote and we got the result,” he said. “It is time to stop agitating society.” He promised to consider constitutional reform, but opposition politicians say this is likely a mere facade.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who originally replaced her husband, a popular blogger who was prevented from running by authorities and jailed, became the main opposition candidate to Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko as part of a compound opposition campaign exclusively by women headed by herself, María. Kolesnikova and Veronika Tsepkalo.
He fled to neighboring Lithuania in early August, from where he posted a video indicating that he had faced an ultimatum involving his family.
In September, in a video appearance before the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, he vowed that the country’s movement for democratic change would not give up, even in the face of continued intimidation and violence from the Lukashenko regime.
Veronika Tsepkalo
A former Microsoft employee, she was her husband Valery Tsepkalo’s campaign manager before he was forced to flee with the couple’s children to Moscow before the elections. Having campaigned alongside Tikhanovskaya and Kolesnikova, she joined him on Election Day.
Apart from a one-day stopover in Belarus, when she says she was threatened with jail, she has remained in exile in Moscow. She told a radio interviewer in early August: “I think I can do more by being in Moscow, being free and being able to speak on behalf of the people of Belarus before the international community.”
Maria Kolesnikova
Kolesnikova had led the presidential campaign of another opposition politician, Viktor Babariko, also excluded from the elections and imprisoned by the government. She was the only one of the three women to remain in Belarus after the disputed August elections.
On September 7, it was reported that she was abducted by unidentified masked men on the street of the capital Minsk. Kolesnikova’s press assistant Anton Rodnenkov confirmed her abduction to the media and reportedly disappeared about 40 minutes later. According to a Ukrainian minister, Kolesnikova later tore up her passport at the Belarus-Ukraine border to thwart attempts to deport her. She is currently detained in Minsk.
She had announced on August 31 that she was forming a new political party, Together.
Lukashenko on Wednesday accused the United States of fomenting protests in the country, a claim echoed by the director of Russia’s foreign spy agency, Sergey Naryshkin. He said in a statement that his agency had information that the United States had funded the Belarusian opposition and encouraged protests in the country.
For now, at least, Lukashenko retains the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who seems to have decided that backing him is a better option than allowing street pressure to win.
Lukashenko traveled to Putin’s residence on the Black Sea in Sochi on Monday for a talk and left with expressions of support and a $ 1.5 billion loan. On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was in Minsk, and Lukashenko said during their meeting that he had asked Putin for “various new types of weapons.” The claim was immediately rejected by Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who said the issue had not been raised at the meeting.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Putin that unconditional support for Lukashenko would likely alienate the Belarusian people, who have close historical ties to Russia. Geopolitical issues have not been part of the protest movement.
Maas said: “With its unconditional support for Lukashenko so far and the hybrid exercise of influence, Moscow will certainly lose the sympathy of the people in Belarus.”
