Maryna Adamovich: Protest Spring Is To Escalate Into Protest Autumn

Belarusians have been taken to the streets by the economic crisis that the authorities cannot cope with.

Maryna Adamovich, the wife of one of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress Mikalai Statkevich, stated that in an interview to Charter97.org.

– Today the court of Maskouski district of Minsk fined you 460 rubles for the celebration of the May Day on Kastrychnitskaya Square. How would you comment on the decision of the court?

– Today, no one takes seriously these "courts" in Belarus. This is simply some kind of absurd, when a person enjoys his legal right, backed by international treaties of the country, and he is judged with all the "decorations of legality": with the protocols, written with carbon copies, which say that I "discussed the worsening of the social situation of the working people". And if one is given 15 days of arrest for this, and another one – a fine of 20 basic units, then it only underlines the absurdity of the entire judicial system.

The most unpleasant thing for me was that after my demand to try the case in Belarusian, the judge refused to do it, and only "leniently allowed" me to answer in Belarusian. This is a violation of my constitutional rights, but at the same time it is symptomatic for our authority.

– The May 1 rally in Minsk was a sort of summing up of the Belarusian Spring-2017 results. How do you assess the spring protests in Belarus from the standpoint of today?

– I hope that the protest spring of 2017 will escalate into a protest autumn. Events, which had been unique for Belarus over the past 23 years, occurred this spring: the regions literally rebelled against the current authorities and revealed their will to changes even more actively than the capital. Belarusians were taken to the streets by the economic crisis that the authorities could not cope with.

As they say, constant dropping wears away a stone. The spring protests were not nearly a small drop, they thoroughly undermined the foundations of power and brought Belarus closer to changes.