A former Belarusian policeman fled to Poland

Andrei Ostapovich has just told the Russian newspaper about his journey through the forest to escape to Poland after criticizing the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Working in the investigative agency of the Belarusian Ministry of Public Security, Mr. Ostapovich tendered his resignation in August, after “seeing his colleagues arrest and beat protesters, despite the law.”

Tell the Moscow Times, the Russian newspaper that has an English version (on September 22, 2020), said:

“I witnessed the illegal behavior of the police” after they were arrested for destroying a police vehicle during a protest in the capital, Minsk.

On September 16, he submitted a request to resign and moved to Moscow, like many other Belarusians: Belarusian citizens can travel and enter Russia normally.

But after posting his resignation on Instagram and asking to “go after the dictator,” Ostapovich became famous in the Russian-speaking world.

Because his friends in Minsk said he was “blacklisted” by the authorities and concerned for personal safety, Andrei Ostapovich rented a car to go to Latvia.

However, the Russian border did not allow him to go to Latvia for “preventing the Covid-19 epidemic” and Lativa advised him to go to her consulate in Pskov for help.

In this northeastern Russian city, Ostapovich was detained and questioned by Russian federal security, he told the Moscow Times.

The newspaper said the editorial board contacted Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) to confirm this, but had no response.

Because he did not leave Russia by the legal route to Latvia, Mr. Ostapovich escaped into the forest and crossed the border by land from Belarus to Poland.

According to Germany’s Deutsche Welle, there has been a phenomenon where some Belarusian police officers resigned because they did not want to participate in the crackdown on protesters.

Some people, such as Captain Yegor Yemeljanov, make their identities public when they leave the police uniform, while others, such as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander and Investigator Vladimir, only named and did not name them when responding to the media. out of reason to quit smoking.

However, all these people believe that the beating of the brutal protesters on Okrestina Street, Minsk after the elections is a turning point that makes them feel that they can no longer serve in the Belarusian Ministry of Public Security.

On September 7, 2020, Belarusian Public Security Minister Yury Karajeu said that “hundreds of protesters severely beat the police” and that the police in his country were “the most humane in the world.”

Authorities say at least 600 people have been arrested for disturbing and assaulting public officials, and 30 police officers “hospitalized with injuries” as of the first week of September.

On September 23, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who was re-elected in a controversial election last month, was sworn in without notice.

Hundreds of officials and guests attended the ceremony at the Independence Palace in central Minsk, state media said that hundreds of officials and guests attended the ceremony at the Independence Palace in central Minsk, but the public he was not as informed of the event as Lukashenko’s previous oath was.

In his opening speech, the Belarusian leader said that he “cannot leave the people and the country.”

But he also promised to protect the constitution, “freedom and democracy” for Belarus.

The ‘clandestine’ oath received much attention from the international press because the Belarusian government did not confirm that there would be a ceremony when it was questioned by diplomatic officials.

So far, some EU countries say they do not recognize Lukashenko as President of Belarus.

Lithuania’s neighboring Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius wrote on Twitter that Lukashenko’s oath was “a sham.”