Ihar Alinevich: Russia's deceitful rhetoric is disgusting

Enthusiasm of the Ukrainians is worth admiration.

Political prisoner Ihar Alinevich wrote it in a letter. His mother, Valiantsina Alinevcih, sent an extract from his letter to charter97.org.

“I catch myself thinking that the events in Ukraine painfully resemble the scenes from The Thibaults, namely, stirring up the WWI. The habitual world views and psychological models of the last two decades have been breaking more often and drastically since 2010. We've got used to think that many brutal and severe things remained in the past, and close our eyes to flagrant cases,” he writes.

The political prisoner emphasises that “looking at the reaction of the 'fair elder brother and defender' has became a habit for society”.

“But it turns out that the world has been living with the illusion of peace and right. It's time to answer for double standards. The enthusiasm of the Ukrainians is worth admiration, while the deceitful rhetoric of the empire about 'confrontation between Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking population' is disgusting. But Patria sounds louder than Liberte in the fog of military maneuvers. What seems to be barbarity and lie today may become logic tomorrow. In 1914, most of internationalists of all countries become imperial chauvinists. Are people cleverer today?” the political prisoner writes.

On May 27, 2011, judge Zhanna Khvainitskaya of Minsk's Zavadski district court sentenced Ihar Alinevich to 8 years in prison. He serves his term in correctional facility No. 10 in Navapolatsk, which is famous for its strict rules. Mikalai Dziadok, Aliaksandr Frantskevich and Alinevich were accused of organising a procession near the Ministry of Defence, attacking the Shangri La casino and a detention centre in Akrestsin Street, setting the door of a Belarusbank office on fire.