Nina Bahinskaya: Money Is Less Important To Me Than What I Do

How the famous activist survives on $80 per month.

Renown public activist Nina Bahinskaya told palitviazni.info about heavy fines and her personal budget.

“The state still takes 50 percent of my pension to cover the fines, so I have to save money,” said the interlocutor. “But I learned to live with that sum of money ...”

Nina Bahinskaya is a constant participant of various actions, she comes there with a white-red-white flag to express her civic position. The police qualifies this as “unauthorized pickets”, and have been imposing heavy fines on the elderly woman for a long time. The fines have reached the amount impossible for the pensioner to cover.

“According to preliminary calculations, the total amount of fines that I was issued in recent years has already reached about 40 thousand rubles (about 20 thousand dollars in the equivalent),” the activist said. “Of course, I’m not going to pay them, and therefore the state continues to withdraw 50 percent of my pension. As a result, I used to receive 160 rubles in my hands, the same amount went to repay the fines. Now I have a little more - 170 rubles”.

To recover fines, the officers of court even announced an auction for the sale of Nina Bahinskaya’s summer house in the Smaliavichy district, and also arrested the pensioner’s country house in the Pukhavichy district.

“As you know, the summer house in the Smaliavichy district was going to be auctioned off, but no buyers were found,” continues Nina Bahinskaya. “The Smaliavichy District Department of Correections refused to auctionmy real estate, so the case was transferred to the Pershamaiski District Department of Corrections in Minsk. And now I received a letter from the Department of Corrections of the Pukhavichy district, which says my summer house will not be put up for auction. I drew from this the conclusion that, in the district, the officials are not so cowardly, and maybe even smarter than in Minsk. I mean, this is so obvious - no one will buy that house.”

How does a retired pensioner survive at 160-170 rubles a month?

“I don’t need much for life,” answers Nina Bahinskaya. “And the menu is rather modest: not very expensive cereals (oatmeal first of all), milk, kefir, black bread, chicken soup sets. Also, in summer and autumn I properly prepared for the winter, froze green groceries, a lot of berries. Last year there was a rich harvest of apples, so now there are no problems with that either. But I don’t buy meat and sausages, especially since they are not very suitable for a healthy diet. On the New Year, my daughter brought me some lamb, which I likesince long ago, so I cooked and ate it with great pleasure.”

Nina Bahinskaya adds that the apartment in Minsk is not registered in her name, so children pay for the housing and utility services.

“If the budget is properly distributed, then I even have money for a subscription to independent newspapers,” the activist said. “Also, there was a trip to the Homel region recently, to visit the grave of hero of Ukraine Mikhail Zhyzneuski, who was killed at the maidan in Kyiv. So, I paid 20 rubles for a bus together with everyone else. In short, money is not the main thing for me. The main thing is what I do.”