Stanislau Shushkevich: “It is a struggle of obscurantists against common sense”

Lukashenka’s regime becomes simply brutal when they see a white-red-white flag, and they fight with everything Belarusian by all means, the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus believes.

“Lukashenka’s regime becomes simply brutal when they see white-red-white flag; they are fighting against everything Belarusian. How could a person be ignorant about the history of the national symbols? A white-red-white flag was a state flag for a long time, and then was replaced by a red-green flag in a false referendum. Notably, a red-green flag has no relation to the history of Belarus, to its heraldry. It is Soviet long-time illiteracy, demonstration of complete ignorance of our leadership. But what strange is with that, if they say Vasil Bykau wrote poems, and Francis Skaryna walked around St Petersburg?” Stanislau Shushkevich stated in an interview to charter97.org .

“It is some kind of going berserk and death agony of the regime. It’s a struggle of obscurantists against common sense. Lukashenka employs methods of preserving monarchy. Our court, as it is non-existent, can find any article for Syarhei Kavalenka and charge him with anything. Undoubtedly, Kavalenka is a new political prisoner, a patriot who is imprisoned for being a Belarusian. But I am proud that our country has people like him. As a physicist and as a politician I can say that it was a brilliant action both in technical and political aspects.

Europe must stop thinking that some positive changes are taking place in Belarus. A threat of censorship in the Internet emerges, new political prisoners appear, which is obvious stepping up of repressions. But at the same time I would like to note that a sense of responsibility of the nation grows, patriotism is developing. And this latter fact is very reassuring for me,” the politician said.

At noon January 7, a national white-red-white was hung out at the top of the 35-metres-high Christmas Tree set up on Victory square in Vitsebsk. 34-year-old Kavalenka was detained near the tree. On January 10 the prosecutor of Vitsebsk decided to place him in the remand prison for 2 months. A case on charges relating Article 339 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (repeated hooliganism, or committed by a group of persons, or connected with committing less serious bodily harm) has been opened against him. He faces up to 6 years of imprisonment under this article.