MINSK, Belarus (AP) – When Kseniya Milya’s grandfather died of COVID-19 in a hospital in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, the country’s authoritarian leader cheerfully dismissed the pandemic as a “psychosis” and recommended a remedy: blowing vodka and paintings hard. in the fields.
Like many other Belarusians in the government’s arrogant technique of the pandemic, Milya joined the opposition’s primary protests ahead of Sunday’s presidential vote in which President Alexander Lukashenko seeks a sixth term. The avalanche of public discontent poses the greatest serious challenge for Lukashenko after 26 years in power.
Milya said his 86-year-old grandfather, Ivan Shelesny, believed Lukashenko and took no precautions as the pandemic spread across the former Soviet country.
“(He) trusted Lukashenko and television, who said COVID-19 does not exist, and died,” said Milya, a 26-year-old film producer. “It’s the result of government policy.”
“He attended veterans meetings and visited street markets,” he added. “And he was very surprised when he tested positive.”
Milya’s grandfather died of coronavirus-induced pneumonia in March, after a week with a fan.
“The day I was called intensive care to say that my grandfather died of showing COVID-19, I turned on the television and saw the president say that no one had died from the virus in Belarus,” Milya told The Associated Press.
It was not until April that the government reported the first COVID-19 deaths in the country.
Milya and her circle of relatives were all inflamed and were unable to attend the funeral. His 46-year-old father spent a month on a ventilator and survived slightly, and his father-in-law has been in intensive care since April.
“The government refused to recognize the life of the virus or provide assistance, wasting time,” he said.
She said that when her father was hospitalized, no one bothered to check him for COVID-19. Only after a week, the government did a CT scan and put it on a fan for 31 days.
While the pandemic engulfed the world, Lukashenko ignored the closure of the World Health Organization.
Instead, the former 65-year-old state farm chief begged Belarusians to “kill the virus with vodka,” move to saunas and paintings in the fields to infection. “The tractors will heal everyone!” Proclaimed.
Lukashenko refused to impose restrictions, making Belarus the only country in Europe that continues to hold professional football matches with enthusiasts in the stands while the epidemic was in full swing. Religious meetings and other mass gatherings continued unhindered and a large army parade was held in May to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nazi defeat in World War II.
Last month, Lukashenko announced that he himself had contracted the virus but had no symptoms and that he would have recovered temporarily through the practice of the sport. He vigorously defended the government’s response, saying that extensive evidence had helped him avoid the spread out of control of the disease and arguing that a blockade would have been fatal to the economy.
Their approach, combined with the painful economic consequences of the pandemic, helped thicken opposition ranks before the vote.
Milya, one of tens of thousands of people who flocked to electoral rallies for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former instructor and wife of a jailed opposition blogger who challenged Lukashenko in Sunday voting.
“Offering the use of tractors and vodka was like spitting in other people’s faces,” Tsikhanouskaya told AP in an interview. “This disrespectful and derogatory Attitude Array … had a strong effect at a time when other people were desperately in need of help amid the pandemic. And all they got was that rudeness.”
The country of 9.5 million other people reported that more than 68,500 showed infections and 580 deaths. Critics have accused the government of manipulating the numbers.
“No one, not even the government itself, trusts the official statistics of Belarus,” said Pavel Paleichik, a paramedic from the western city of Lida, who was sentenced to seven days in prison and lost his task after complaining – at an opposition rally – about the lack of protective equipment.
Paleichik said the government has suggested to doctors that they characterize deaths due to COVID-19 for other reasons.
“The setting is horrible. We lack protective equipment, other people have to wait for an ambulance for 3 to four hours,” Paleichik told AP. “I didn’t need to tolerate this and be quiet like everyone else. And I’ve faced serious reprisals from the government for that.”
When the government took a step back, a large motion of volunteers spread across the country to raise the doctors’ budget and raise awareness of the pandemic.
“The epidemic has shown that Belarusians are able to solidize,” said Andrei Tkachev, coordinator of the byCOVID-19 volunteer organization that has collected cash and protective equipment for medical staff.
Volunteers raised $350,000 for hospitals and provided doctors with 450,000 respirators, hazardous fabric coverage settings and other protective equipment.
“We are all equivalent to the coronavirus, we have presented cover to the army and the police,” Tkachev said.
The Belarusian government saw the volunteer motion as a challenge. Andrei Strizhak, one of the leaders of BYCOVID-19, was forced to flee to Ukraine with his circle of relatives after receiving threats.
“The coronavirus has an impulse that has caused great discontent with the government and, in particular, lukashenko,” Tkachev said. “A lot of other people are tired of being afraid and quiet.”
Although Belarus has not imposed a blockade, its economy has been greatly affected by the global pandemic.
Russia, which buys most of Belarusian exports, is in recession and other export markets have also contracted. Amid economic conflicts, Moscow this year withdrew a sharp cut in its oil supplies, depriving Lukashenko’s government of about $700 million in annual profits from the export of oil products made from reasonable Russian crude.
Speaking outdoors at the minsk tractor factory where he works, Kirill Egotin, 24, lamented stagnant wages and emerging customer prices.
“I grew up with Lukashenko, but the development of poverty, stagnation and impotence in the fight against coronavirus have undermined confidence in his government,” said Egotin, who earns $415 a month. “Everyone’s tired of it.”
___
Follow the AP pandemic in http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak