‘Social Parasite’ From Kobryn Tells How He Managed To Make Money On Government’s Absurd Initiative

Mikhail Lyshchyk video-filmed his every visit to the tax inspectorate and to the district executive committee.

Mikhail Lyshchyk from Kobryn, Brest region, received the “letter of happiness” from the tax inspectorate, but decided not to pay the tax but to video-film all his visits to the tax inspectorate and the local district executive committee with his cellphone and publish at Youtube, Radio Liberty reports.

As a result, Mikhail was released from paying the tax eventually. His video-blog has become rather popular in Belarus:

“By the moment I received this so-called “letter of happiness”, which was back in January, I hadn’t even known such decree existed. I heard about the possibility of signing a law like this, but I never thought it had actually been adopted. So, when they demanded I should pay the tax for non-working, I had an idea to start struggling for the abolishment of this tax, and broadcast it all via Youtube. Frankly speaking, I’ve been thinking about doing something at this channel; probably even make money on it. As a result, the video with the officials has become rather popular. Some files have around 50K views. I can’t say I made much money on my movies, but the state didn’t make money on me, while I managed to make money on them, although it’s only 15 bucks.”

According to Mikhail, the state officials always were very nervous when he filmed them. However, normally no bitter quarrels occurred:

“When they realized I was filming, they demanded I should stop it straightaway. However, they couldn’t ban me from filming. Later on, in a couple of days, there appeared signs on the office doors, like, video-filming is prohibited because there are official documents inside. However, I continued and they stopped reacting to that – probably they realized they couldn’t order to me. However, I heard that when some people tried to take pictures and videos, the officials didn’t let them do it and even took their cellphones.”

As a result, Mikhail Lyshchyk was released from payment of the “social parasite” tax, but no one informed Mikhail on which grounds it was done.

“I had no idea they had released me from paying this “social parasites” tax. I found this out when I came to the bank and asked about the situation with the tax out of sheer curiosity, as I paid 2 kapeykas to the tax inspectorate’s account. They told me in the bank the account balance was zero. Like, I don’t have to pay anything. In the tax inspectorate, the officials confirmed that I had been released from the tax payment. However, they refused to provide me any materials in my case. Thus, I think they released me from payment to stop me from messing with their heads.”

Apart from that, the tax officials phoned Mikhail a little bit later and asked him to come to their office to file an application for the return of the 2 kapeykas he had already paid to their account.

As previously reported by the charter97.org, on February 26 thousands of people came out to the protest actions in Vitsebsk, Babruisk, Brest and Baranavichy. The people come out to the streets demanding no only to cancel the “social parasites” decree, but to dismiss Lukashenka, for the second week.

The key slogans of the Outraged Belarusians’ Marches remain “Basta!” and “Lukashenka, Go Away!”