Kiryl Silivonchyk: Belarusian Guarded Me In Russian Prison

Kiryl Silivonchyk, who was convicted in Russia for support of Ukraine, gave one of his first interviews upon release to charter97.org.

The citizen of Belarus Kiryl Silivonchyk, who has spent two years behind the bars in Russian Federation for supporting Ukraine by his posts in social networks, returned to Belarus yesterday.

Silivonchyk came from Moscow to Minsk by plane late in the evening on December 21. Reporters and his sister Katsiaryna met him in the airport.

In an interview with charter97.org, Silivonchyk said that he was transported handcuffed for 9 hours from the detention center for foreigners.

– What are your first impressions of Belarus? How did you make it to Minsk?

– We get here without traffic jams (he laughs). It took us 9 hours to get from Nizhny Novgorod to the airport in Moscow. We made only one stop. There was no food or anything else provided. I was handcuffed all that time. They took the handcuffs off only in the airport – my hands are still aching.

– Did your arrest for supporting Ukraine in December 2014 come out of the blue?

– I couldn't even imagine that such thing could happen. And certainly I did not think that they could initiate a criminal case, try me and jail me for real for a post in the social network. I should have been smarter and should have thought what I was posting on my page.

– You were serving a sentence in the colony "Sukhobezvodnoye", which is known among the Russian human rights activists for its brutal orders ...

– This is one of the most brutal and severe penal colonies in the Nizhny Novgorod region, a lot of tortures were carried out there at some time in the past. However, when I arrived, it became a little better. No one was beaten, people were treated with respect. I faced no threats or pressure as well. By the way, the head of the colony – a Belarusian from Homel region.

– Did Belarusian Embassy staff help you in some way?

– The Belarusian Embassy provided no help. The consul arrived as late as one day before I was to be transported to the prison. He asked me how I was doing and where I was going to serve the sentence. There was no more support or information provided by the embassy.

Only after I was released and placed in a detention center for foreigners, they, of course, supervised the issues related to my location and deportation.

– Did you get letters? Did you feel support and solidarity?

– I would like to thank everybody for their attention, for having found and published information about what had happened to me. Surely, I didn't expect that, but I was pleased. Thanks to journalists and all those who were not indifferent, a hype was fuelled about this case and that drew the public's attention to it. Exactly that made the embassy staff to intervene.

Yes, a lot of people wrote me, especially during the first months of my imprisonment. Even my jailers were surprised by such a huge number of letters. It seems that people from all over Europe have sent me their letters: I received letters from Norway, Lithuania, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus. I am very grateful to everybody for such a great support. I was pleased.

– What do you plan to do in the homeland?

– I don't know yet. I just want to have rest, after all, I have had to go through not the best in my life over the past years. I'll see. For the next five years I am banned from entering Russia, so I cannot go there even if I want to.

I think, I still will have to meet with our intelligence services. I don't know how it will end, but I hope for the better.