Vintsuk Vyachorka: «Cossacks with nagaykas on streets of Minsk are simply low comedians”

Belarusian democrats have negatively received the fact that the Belarusian Cossacks had started to guard Minsk zoological garden.

It has been stated by the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front party Vintsuk Vyachorka to the Interfax agency.

“Considering controversial attitude to Cossacks in Belarus, I am ready to pose a question: if Cossacks have been allowed to carry out guarding, what are the reasons for not allowing the opposition to keep guard in Kurapaty, for instance (the place near Minsk, the site of mass NKVD repressions in Soviet time),” Vyachorka said.

“Cossacks in Belarus mean manoeuvres of politicians, imposing not only alien, but obviously unfriendly stereotypes on us. In the history of Belarus Cossacks are primarily associated with battery and forcing the nation to accept an alien faith. Those who are marching with nagaykas now, to my mind, are loaw comedians,” Vyachorka explained.

He has also underlined that unlike Ukraine and southern regions of Russia, “Cossacks in Belarus have never been a social class, have never been represented as a state institution”.

In his turn, the head of the educational department of Minsk zoological garden Alyaksandr Strohanau explained to the agency that “It is too early to speak about permanent guard of Cossacks, it is an experiment, the mechanism is being elaborated”. The interlocutor of the agency has also noted that Cossakcs worlk as volunteers.

“Acts of hooliganism are not often on the territory of the zoological garden. But all kind of things happen: a drunken person may come and start a row. And besides, Cossacks keep a check on safety measures observation,” A. Strohanau explained.

And in his turn, “the chieftain of Minsk Cossacks” Yury Yafimau has informed that “a patrol of Cossacks plans to work in Minsk zoo on weekends only”.

“Our Cossacks not only maintain order, but help with different tasks, groom horses which are kept in the zoo,” Y. Yafimau said. He underlined that the Belarusian Cossacks have offered a number of initiatives related not only with guarding activities, but with “issues of patriotic upbringing and horseracing classes’ opening”.