New Details In The Case Of Disappearance Of Belarusian Political Scientist Anatoly Kotov Have Emerged

His colleague said there were inconsistencies with the official information.

The whereabouts of Belarusian political scientist Anatoli Kotov, who disappeared in Turkey on August 21, are still unknown. His colleague, head of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund Alexandr Opeikin, told in Facebook about new details in the disappearance case:

1. As of today, official confirmation has been received from the Turkish prosecutor's office that Anatoly Kotov's passport was whisked away at 18.35:54 when leaving Turkey on August 21 through the port of Trabzon. The departure was allegedly voluntary.

This fact in itself does not say anything until there are photos and video materials. The big question is whether it is a fact at all.

The departure could not have been voluntary, the passport could have been bounced in the system without the bearer (in the port of Trabzon passports are handed over in packs when boarding the ship). The passport itself could have been fictitious.

2. The results of independent investigation of all the circumstances of the trip indicate that Anatoly Kotov was planning to return back:

was bought a return ticket to Warsaw for Sunday, August 24;

was scheduled and confirmed work meetings for the coming week;

was taken a minimum of things for the trip;

many personal belongings, which any person who planned a one-way trip in advance would most likely take with him, were left at home;

was actively involved in various life issues, which did not indicate that the person was planning a trip to Warsaw. There was no signal of danger or any problematic situation in the correspondences. Contact with Anatoly was cut off suddenly.

There are also discrepancies with the time of arrival reported by the official Turkish agency IHA (13.49) and the actual time of Anatoly Kotov's arrival in Istanbul (12.57).

The statement of the Turkish agency IHA of August 28 shows a photo of the document by which Kotov allegedly crossed the border - it was a Polish Travel Document. But Kotov crossed the border on a Belarusian passport, not on the Polish document. The photo of the Travel Document was apparently received by the IHA agency from the Turkish police, where we sent a statement about the disappearance of Anatoli Kotov on August 25, and which the Turkish police denied receiving. The Travel Document photo in the police report and in the official publication of the IHA agency are identical. Someone was in a hurry.

Slightly later, the police told the lawyers that Anatoly had allegedly taken a flight to Trabzon 6-7 hours after landing and left across the sea. But Kotov landed at 12:57 p.m., and the passport in Trabzon, according to the same police earlier allegedly fought back at 18:35. And it's still a couple of hours' flight to Trabzon. Literally: "Your husband arrived in Turkey, and approximately 6-7 hours after landing, he took a flight to Trabzon. From Trabzon, he left the country by sea."

All this at least looks a little strange.

Belarusian political scientist Anatoly Kotov missing on August 21 in Turkey. Turkish media outlet IHA found that Kotov arrived in Istanbul from Warsaw on August 21 and flew to the Turkish city of Trabzon on the same day.

The Belarusian political analyst, according to the publication, left Turkey through the Trabzon sea border crossing on a flight at 18:35. The media published a photo of a Polish travel document for foreigners (polski dokument podróży dla cudzoziemca) in the name of Anatoly Kotov.

The Istanbul bureau of Deutsche Welle managed to talk to a source in the Trabzon police. The source confirmed that Kotov left Trabzon on August 21, the day he arrived in Turkey. According to him, Kotov traveled to Sochi on a private yacht. It is known that there is no regular ferry service from this port. Cargo and fishing vessels, cruise ships and private boats leave from there. Theoretically, it is possible to get from Trabzon by sea to all countries in the Black Sea area, but the fastest way is to neighboring Georgia or Russia.

In the early 2000s, Anatoly Kotov worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2006 to 2015, he held various positions at the Belarusian Embassy in Poland, rising from third secretary to senior advisor to the ambassador.

In 2015, he returned to Minsk, where he moved from the Foreign Ministry to work at the National Olympic Committee, which at the time was personally headed by Alexander Lukashenko. Kotov first worked there as a leading specialist, but soon took the position of secretary general.

Then worked in Lukashenko's administration, where he took the position of deputy head of the department of financing state bodies of the Main Financial Department of the dictator's administration.

On August 18, 2020, Kotov resigned from Lukashenko's administration, the same day he signed an open letter of Belarusian athletes who spoke out against election fraud and condemned violence by security forces. Then he moved to Warsaw. In recent years, he cooperated with the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund.

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