Andrei Sannikov: I Remain a Presidential Candidate

“I demand to hold the presidential elections under international control,” the politician said.

Charter97.org continues to publish extracts from Andrei Sannikov's book Belarusian Amerikanka or Elections under Dictatorship.

The beginning of extracts is available here.

- After the sentence, I decided to change my relations with Orlov, the head of the detention center. Before the trial, I tried not to fall for his provocations, not to argue with him, although that was difficult, especially because he would break into hysterics, sometimes for show, and sometimes, it seemed to me, for real. Predictably, I was brought to him the next day after the trial. He tried to continue a discussion with me about how I was wrong, and the henchmen were right. I cut him off and asked him a simple question: by what right did he, Orlov, believe it possible to drag me out of my cell in order to talk to me, display his power and soothe his ambition? Strangely, this worked; Orlov fell silent and called for the convoy guard who took me back to my cell.

My calculation was simple: I wanted to get out of the Amerikanka as soon as possible. It was hard to predict the behavior of my henchmen. They could leave me in the Amerikanka until the review of my appeal, to continue the program of psychological and physical work-over. They could transfer me to the Interior Ministry’s prison, Volodarka. They could send me to somewhere like Detention Center No. 8 in Zhodino, infamous for the outrages of its administration, or to any prison. I hoped that the conflict with Orlov would hasten my dispatch in fact to Volodarka.

Strange as it may seem, my primitive calculation worked, and within two days, on May 18, I entered Volodarka.

I had been brought there already for five days in early January 2011. They had carted me from place to place to scare my relatives. The transport was secret, I was simply jerked out of my cell and without anything being explained, was put into a Gazelle van with cells. We didn’t travel for long. They unloaded me and took me to the gates of the Pishchalovsky Castle, that is, to Volodarka. Apparently the henchmen rejoiced, imagining the panic among my relatives. I suddenly “disappeared” and although by law they should immediately inform the family about a change in the place of imprisonment, no one knew my whereabouts, neither my family or my lawyer. They didn’t inform them at the time, or after the fact. Despite the incomprehensible contingent in the cell at Volodarka and two obvious “brood hens,” I rested up there a little after the KGB’s torture. They threw me cigarettes, they helped me to wash my clothes and sew up my jacket which had been torn in fury by the turnkeys at the Amerikanka. The zek who sewed up my torn sleeve replied to my protest “I’ll sew it myself,” “Let me do at least something for you. Furthermore, you can later say that your jacket was repaired by a descendent of the Moscow Governor General Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn.”

Volodarka

The transfer to Volodarka right after the trial gave me the opportunity to recuperate a little, although all kinds of pains and the after-effects of gout and otitis continued to make themselves felt. The bosses at Volodarka didn’t rejoice; apparently they hadn’t received concrete instructions. Newspapers and letters began to arrive. There wasn’t tension in the cell, either. My cell-mates, “cop” and “commerce” didn’t particularly feel like talking.

The main thing is that finally, Irina and I were able to meet, and I saw my mother. It was through a thick glass and on the telephone, with terrible crackling in the speakers, and with bugs and surveillance, but we saw each other in person, talked about ourselves and about Danik. The dangerous illusion was created that the worst was already behind.

The only thing that worried the administration of the Volodarka was that I should be sent on the transport to the colony as quickly as possible, out of harm’s way. The head of the prison kept insistently asking me to write a statement that I voluntarily ask to be sent to the colony without waiting for the kasatka, the nick-name for kassatsionnaya zhaloba or the appeal of the sentence. I refused.

There was one episode worth noting at Volodarka. Olga, the wife of Zmitser Bandarenka, who was also transferred to this same prison, made an agreement with Irina to ask for a visit with us at the same time, and it all worked. Prisoners are collected by cells at the Volodarka, and then taken along an underground corridor in the Pishchalovsky Castle to a room where visitors can be seen through glass. Usually this is 10 people at a time. During the collecting and the transport, you can manage to talk to the other prisoners, learn something about the latest prison news, and report something yourself. Olga correctly calculated that if the meeting would be at the same time, Zmitser and I would be able to exchange a few words.

We had not seen each other for five months, since the day we were arrested. We hugged, and walked along the underground passageway of the Pishchalovsky Castle toward the visitors’ room, exchanging news and comparing our understanding of the situation. Our wives managed to organize our meeting a second time as well. Zmitser was already on the sick list, and was facing an operation. This worried him, and frightened me above all. Having an operation while under the microscope of the KGB meant risking your life – without exaggeration.

Two weeks before the transport, I was transferred to another cell. There were 15 people there. It was July 2011, and the heat was unbearable; even at night it was hard to breathe, I was tormented by headaches. The cell was filled basically with former officials, known as “b/s” for byvshiye sotrudniki. That was the term used by the prison administration for convicts or suspects from various law-enforcement and security agencies – for which Belarus sets a world record.

Gradually it became clear that among the b/s were spetsnaz, special-assignment troops who had taken part in the dispersals of our protest actions. Not the last one on December 19, 2010, but previous ones including in 2006 after the presidential elections that year.

The nastiest of the cell-mates was a spetsnaz who had prayed fervently and who was also just as fervently “pumping iron.” This was actually a common phenomenon in prisons. Hardened scoundrels who behaved badly in prison would become hopelessly religious. They understood religion very simply: they believed that it exists only in order to wipe away any of their sins. It was like a washing machine, where instead of detergent there was a collection of prayers.

One of the spetsnaz kept us amused by all his stories about thefts in Germany.

Once he was drinking with his friends somewhere not far from the Lithuanian border, and one of his drinking buddies told him what idiotic laws there were in Germany – if you rob a bank for a sum less than 30,000 euro, you can get off with just a suspended sentence. Our hero was very intrigued by this information. They drank some more and then decided to go earn some cash. So they got right up from the table and took paths through the woods to cross the border and get into Lithuania. There they got in touch with an organizer of robberies, a Belarusian émigré who organized them transportation to Germany (thanks to the Schengen zone, there is no border.)

“Oh, tell them what you were wearing when you crossed the border,” said Misha the watcher in anticipation, who knew this story by heart.

“What was I wearing? Shorts and flip-flops,” the thief replied to the merriment of the cell-mates.

“Do you know German?” Misha said, not letting up.

“What German,” the thief said, hurt. “They wrote me something on a piece of cardboard. I had a toy pistol and a hat. I didn’t even have to pull it down over my face. Their video cameras film from the top and the main thing is not to raise your head.”

After robbing several bank branches this way and getting his share, our cell-mate headed back home, and the same way: without ID. Amazingly, he didn’t get caught on the way back, either. Back home, he bought a car and lived for five years, without any trouble, until he was caught with the help of the German police, who came to Belarus for this purpose. He regretted that the trial would be in Belarus and not Germany where some of his accomplices had already been jailed and had served their terms in order to come out and continue to rob German banks, apparently.

I Remain a Presidential Candidate

I was run through quite a lot of prisons – I had to go through four of them (3 of them for twice each), three labor colonies, and eight transports.

In 2011, after the trial, I appealed from prison with a demand to hold a second round of voting in the elections. This was a risky step for my future fate in prison, which threatened to give me new provocations but I considered myself obliged to do this. The difficult economic situation in Belarus threatened a collapse. World solidarity with political prisoners was at its highest level in the whole existence of the Lukashenka regime. Something had to be done, and the international community and opposition focused on the release of the political prisoners. This could not and should not have been a strategic goal.

I sent the statement through malyava, as prisoners call them, tiny folded notes, and letters. A more or less accurate text reached the outside and was published in the independent press:

Today, Belarus is undergoing the most serious crisis in the 20 years of the country’s independence. The difficult situation in the economy as well as in the monetary, social and political spheres, is a direct consequence of the lawless acts committed by the authorities during the 2010 presidential election. The authorities did not just undermine the vote of confidence given them by the people of Belarus, our neighbors, and the whole world community ahead of the election – the regime used it to rob the people of Belarus brazenly and cynically, to steal votes from voters, deprive them of the right to elect.

Unfortunately, the worst scenarios envisioned for developments in Belarus after the election are now coming true. Retention of power by Lukashenka will lead our country to disaster. The inability of the current regime to rule Belarus has long become evident and now the most terrific consequences are visible today. No reshuffling of the regime’s devoted servants in the government within the framework of the existing political system will bring any positive results. Belarus will not stand the further flourishing of “stability”.

Results of the Belarusian presidential election were not recognized by the world community. It has not been for the first time, but now it is clear as never before that no one, neither Europe, nor Russia and the US, regards Lukashenka as an international partner any more. No propaganda spells about mythic percentages Lukashenka is said to have received at the election can delude anyone. Even KGB officers, as I had the opportunity to find out, do not believe in the announced election results and know about the fraud. Belarusian and international observers recorded numerous violations and falsifications of the election results.

As a presidential candidate at the 2010 election, I do no recognize its results and consider them falsified. I consider further preservation of the power of the current Belarusian authorities and the current political system threatens disastrous consequences for the country, first of all for the well-being of the people of Belarus.

At the same time, I am convinced that there’s still a way out of the crisis. I am even ready to recognize the voting at the Belarusian presidential election on December 19, 2010. The results of the voting, according to domestic and international observers, showed no one won the election in the first round. Lukashenka has to admit that on December 19, 2010, he did not win the 50 percent of the votes necessary for victory.

In spite of Lukashenka’s public assurances that another person was leading among the alternative candidates, the Central Election Commission had to admit I was the runner-up.

If Lukashenka is able to perceive reality adequately and really thinks he has support among people, the presidential election should be completed. This will return law in Belarus and stop the impending catastrophe.

I do not renounce my title of candidate for president of the Republic of Belarus and demand to hold a second round of the presidential elections with international monitoring. I appeal to the people of Belarus to support my demand. Today, the fate of the country depends on each of us.

I made this statement while in Volodarka. Soon I was sent on the convoy. If the leaders of the opposition – those who, unlike me, were in the free world – had checked their ambitions and supported such a strategy, there would have been a chance. Unfortunately, the history of Belarus in the last 20 years is a history of lost opportunities.