Negotiations between Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin will begin in Sochi on Monday. The two leaders are discussing cooperation in the areas of import substitution and other forms of integration. Sanction pressure and isolation from the West not only help deepen economic cooperation between the two countries, but also help reject obligations to pan-European structures. If in Russia the reinstatement of the death penalty is only under discussion, then in Belarus the scope of application of the death penalty is being expanded and the number of political prisoners is increasing. Human rights activists have even set up a special day of solidarity with them - May 21.
The formal part of the negotiations between the heads of state of Russia and Belarus is scheduled to take place on Monday. However, Alexander Lukashenko flew to Sochi on Friday. The two presidents clearly had something to discuss informally. The two countries are facing unprecedented sanctions pressure, excluded from interaction with some European structures, and appear to have lost motivation to focus on their professed values.
On the eve of his visit to Russia, Alexander Lukashenko did two important things - he held a meeting with schoolchildren about the 100th anniversary of the Vanguard organization and signed a treaty on the application of the death penalty for "attempted acts of terrorism" law. If in Russia this punishment is still suspended, then in Belarus it was and is being implemented. However, legislative innovations made it a vehicle for broader action than before.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the informal opposition leader who lives outside Belarus, immediately responded to Lukashenko’s decision in her Telegram channel: “A signing of The decree on the death penalty for 'attempted acts of terrorism' - came on the same day that news emerged in Belarus about a possible ban on the sale of Orwell's 1984. When we remember this time in Belarus in the future, it is difficult to believe it all. It's really happening to us. Orwell in this book does a good job of pointing out the only things that Belarus can expect under Lukashenko: "If you want an image of the future, imagine it. A boot on a man's face - forever.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also issued a statement on new methods of using the death penalty: "The Lukashenko regime in Belarus has found new ways to intimidate and punish its citizens, including through a About the law applying the death penalty to pro-democracy activists.
Human rights activists in Belarus have declared May 21 as Political Prisoners Day to commemorate the death of opposition leader Vitold Ashurka in the colony last year. "The official cause was cardiac arrest, although according to relatives the man made no complaints about his health before being imprisoned," wrote human rights campaigners at the center. Relatives still don't know why the man died. There is still no criminal case regarding the facts of his death... Witold, the first political prisoner in the 2020 incident, told that political prisoners in the colony were marked with yellow tags in large numbers.
However, the number and criteria for being classified as political prisoners are still open to question. A prominent journalist and human rights activist, Iryna Khalip, wrote on the Charter 97 website: “Today, in the third decade of the new century, there are thousands of political prisoners , but no one will tell the exact number. The criteria for recognition are so opaque and incomprehensible that it is impossible to believe the number 1203 listed on the Viasna website. Moreover, the human rights activists of "Viasna". Also in prison, you don’t argue with them now, you don’t say: “Guys, why don’t you recognize Otukhovich as a political figure? "No one.
The trial against the above-mentioned Irina Khalip Nikolai Autukhovich and her team (11 people) began in Grodno last week and will continue this week. Autukhovich and several others were imprisoned in December 2020 Detained. They are accused of setting fire to a policeman's house and car in Volkovysk and blowing up the car of another law enforcement officer in Grodno.
The prosecution claimed that Avtokhovych's criminal plans emerged while he was "in war zones in Ukraine, including in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions." Furthermore, the group’s leaders were accused of intending to “seize power with the initiative and assistance of the Main Intelligence Service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.”
Regardless, there is no doubt that today’s Ukraine is the basis for forming the core of the radical opposition. On the occasion of the Day of Political Prisoners, representatives of the "Castus Kalinovsky Battalion" issued a special statement saying that as the number of fighters grows, their unit is being transformed into a regiment. They emphasized: “The Belarusian Liberation Army is a factor affecting the historical changes of our motherland.
