Wrestler Mikita Klimovich: All My Relatives and Friends Supported My Participation in the Marches

The European champion from Babruisk told us why he chose to live by the truth.

Greco-Roman athlete Mikita Klimovich is one of two thousand Belarusian athletes who signed a letter demanding a new presidential election and condemning the violence. Babruisk is an international master of sports in Greco-Roman wrestling. Bronze medalist of the junior world championship in 2017, the youth world championship (U-23) in 2018, he won the silver medal at the European championship among juniors in 2017, writes Salidarnasts.

From 2018 to 2020, Klimovich was a member of the national team. But last November, he was informed that measures would be taken against the signatories of the letter - up to and including dismissal from the national team.

Later, Mikita was offered to take his signature back; this happened about a month before the national team's certification. He refused, after which he was informed of the Minister of Sports' instructions not to include the athletes who signed the letter in the national team. At the end of the year, the contract with him was terminated.

"My friends came out of the detention center beaten, all bruised"

Mikita Klimovich says that he learned about the athletes' letter from an acquaintance who used to do wrestling: "She signed it herself, and then she told me."

The interlocutor of Salidarnasts says that he signed the letter out of emotion. According to him, many of his acquaintances and friends were detained during the protests, and some were caught by accident:

- My friends came out of the isolation wards; many were beaten, all bruised. They talked about what happened to them there. One friend was grabbed and pushed into a paddy wagon when he walked in slippers to a stop after training.

In the national team, the first letter was signed by Mikalai Stadub, the only wrestler from the national team to win an Olympic license in Tokyo. After him, there was the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Wrestling Federation, Siarhei Dzemiashkevich.

- When the sanctions began against me, my colleagues... Well, what can they do? Many are afraid to even openly express their opinion about what is happening, as they understand that they can be persecuted. And this is just an end of a career.

In the elections, Mikita voted for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, came to the site in Babruisk with his parents. By the way, there were no queues here, as in Minsk and regional centers.

The official results of the vote upset him. He hoped to the last that the elections would be held according to the law, that the authorities, which seemed to be completely confident in themselves, would not go to such open manipulations. But it turned out how it happened.

Protests in Babruisk

In the summer of 2020, Babruisk was among the cities where pickets and rallies of alternative candidates gathered hundreds and thousands of people.

So, for a meeting with ex-banker Viktar Babaryka, a few days before his arrest, about a hundred residents of Babruisk came. The rally with the participation of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya at the end of July gathered, according to various estimates, from 5 to 6 thousand residents of the city.

According to local media reports, spontaneous protests took place in the city on the night of August 9-10. People gathered near the polling stations and walked the streets. Not without arrests.

After the elections, Sunday marches and chains of solidarity were held in the city, attended by hundreds of citizens.

People take to the streets, realizing what they risk

What he saw at Sunday marches only strengthened the athlete in his thoughts that "we are right":

- That the elections were rigged. Who could make so many people take to the streets, as they tell us on TV? Because they were paid? And you look at the people. These are not some ragamuffins. These are decent people, intelligent. And there are all kinds of age groups. It is definitely impossible to arrange this. Moreover, taking into account the risks that people take when going to the streets. They understand that they can then be fired. Police officers can beat them. And they go anyway.

Mikita Klimovich cites as an example his social circle, which is several hundred people - relatives, fellow athletes, friends, and acquaintances:

- One or two of them support the current government.

Mikita has no regrets about signing the letter. Although he lost his job and place in the national team:

- We must live by the truth, honestly. Otherwise, sooner or later, it will come back to you. I was supported by my parents, all my family, and friends.

"Everything seems to be frozen in Babruisk"

Now Mikita is looking for a job in Minsk. He does not consider options to work in his hometown.

- When I was training, I could live here, saving on housing; in Babruisk, it is cheaper. But I don't want to stay here. Everything here seems to be frozen. Many are used to sitting still. They receive at least some salary and do not dream of more.

Even the moods of the people of Babruisk and Minsk are different; our interlocutor shares his observation:

- Here you can meet people who sincerely do not understand why others take to the streets, what they want: "Why if everything is fine?"

Mikita says that you can talk about something with people with higher education, but the class a hard worker in his fifties is a typical representative of Lukashenka's electorate:

- It is easier for such a person to convince himself that only the truth is told on TV. And just go with the flow.