Dzmitry Bandarenka, coordinator of the European Civil Campaign in Belarus, spoke about this in an interview with Studio X97.
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What do you think of the concept that has been evoked in recent days to Servant of the People, Zelensky’s political party?We all see that they are distancing themselves from Sviatlana Tikhanouskaya, they need some negotiation. But there were concepts to create a kind of political superstructure on the basis of the Kalinoski regiment, which would be the voice of a loose Belarus, and have the opportunity to negotiate and build the future.
I have been saying for a long time that Belarusians will have to unite around two forces and symbols: the other people who are in prison, who started the revolution. And you can’t say: they’re in jail, what can we do?We know that Nelson Mandela was in jail, but it was something vital in politics, Václav Havel had been in prison for a long time. Many leaders of Polish Solidarity were in jail and Western demands for release and sanctions replaced the scenario in Poland.
– Otherwise, we can say: who is not imprisoned among those who had genuine weight?
The leaders were criminals and were the “golden fund” of the long-term Polish national elite.
The strength of the moment is of course the Kalinoski regiment, because it is led by other people who have still participated in the struggle for Ukrainian independence not only since 2014, but many came to Ukraine for the first Maidan and also proved that they were brave. I have much more confidence in those boys, men and heroes of the Kalinosky regiment than in those personalities that accumulated around Tikhanovskaya.
Above all, imagine, my companions are in prison, I myself have been in the prison and I have been in the Resistance for many years, and today they tell me that the woman he likes will have to be his leader, he will have to obey her. And he called this lively “transitional government,” where one, a former Gestapo man, worked for 10 years for GUBOPiK [the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Republic of Belarus, the security forces suppressing protests], I speak of Azarau. He did not repent and did not apologize to the Belarusians. This is our new “leader”! And Latushka, the “leader,” who was an official for 26 years, then switched sides and now brags. The rest of the characters are also absolutely incomprehensible. We are told they are the “leaders. “
No, today other people are demonstrating by force of arms that they are consistent with their principles and that they are willing to take risks. I know that the volunteers are fighting in the ranks of the Kalinoski regiment. Such a system: if a user is not in a position for any reason, he will not be sent to the front. They are volunteers and perceive that they will have to help Ukraine and then liberate Belarus. And there are enough other people who have political experience, several other people were members of the Zubr movement. There are representatives of various sets of the political party of Mikola Statkevich’s People’s Assembly, there are other people from the Belarusian Popular Front, there are convinced anarchists, that is, other people of ideas, there are other people from the Krai organization, which was a military-sports organization. Patriotic organization in the early 2000s.
I think they can be trusted. They will also have to think not only about the creation of a military force today, but about the fact that millions of Belarusians expect it, they will have to turn to Belarusian citizens with exact concepts and, I believe, they will be heard.