WEBVTT 1 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:28.359 New Eastern Europe podcasts. Bella Russians took to the streets in response to the 2 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:34.560 rict's presidential election on August ninth, twenty twenty. The authorities said that Alexander 3 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:40.679 Lukashenka received the support of more than eighty percent of voters, which clearly contradicted 4 00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:46.320 the scale of social mobilization and sentiment. The authority's reaction was to use force. 5 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:51.679 Officially, three people were killed in the first days. A thousand were 6 00:00:51.799 --> 00:01:03.519 arrested, many of them were brutally beaten and tortured. Hello Belarus, my 7 00:01:03.599 --> 00:01:07.599 name is Vlad I'm twenty two years old. I work in construction. I'd 8 00:01:07.680 --> 00:01:12.519 participated in the protests many times. In the events of August from the ninth 9 00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:19.280 until the thirteenth, I was beaten by so called law enforcement officers. On 10 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:26.439 October the eleventh, I was at Pushkinskaya metro station. Nine vehicles water cannons 11 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:30.400 with colored water entered our whoop. We started to run away to the neighborhood 12 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.640 courtyards. I was beaten by amon. I was shot at from fifteen meters. 13 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:37.719 Another boy who was trying to take the girl away, was also shot 14 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:41.239 at. We ran to the staircase. There was a huge crowd. They 15 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:47.000 beat everyone live ammunition was fired. The shot shards hit my face as well 16 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:49.719 as in the groin area of the torso. I managed to escape through the 17 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.719 courtyards and a friend took me to the hospital to the emergency rooms. I 18 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.480 was quickly operated on. The pellet was taken out and I got three stitches. 19 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.239 I had a broken note and concussions. I was one of the first 20 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:05.359 to go to hospital. There was also a girl with a broken head. 21 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:09.080 Later they brought very injured people. I remember a boy with an almost knocked 22 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:15.199 out eye and a broken spine, I think. But the battered men were 23 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:20.360 not assisted by the militia. They were watching over everyone. I asked the 24 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:23.599 doctors not to write nonsense that I was shot with a pneumatic gun, but 25 00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:28.439 they could not do anything because policemen were standing nearby. Thank you very much 26 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:30.319 to the doctors. They support us to the fullest and are against all his 27 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:35.280 brutality. I had to leave the country and fearing for my safety, I 28 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:52.120 left for Warsaws. I was just afraid for my health. My name is 29 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:57.560 Anton Saifulio and I'm an assistant professor at the University of Warsaw Center for East 30 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:04.759 European studies. Absolute the repressions of Belarussians did not come as a surprise in 31 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.639 a red degree. They were surprised by the absolute and total insolence of the 32 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:13.680 authorities, which after breaking the social contract so unwritten that we somehow care for 33 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:16.240 you, We give it a minimum, that is access to medicine, access 34 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:21.599 to education. It is relatively calm, We let the IT sector develop, 35 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:24.639 for example, that is, young people coming to Minsk could abstract about the 36 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:30.120 political situation and as it were, live in the European capital, so there 37 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:35.800 was a kind of apparent robe of stability. After the pandemic happened, the 38 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:40.319 coronavirus pandemic came, then that contract was broken. The authorities totally ignored the 39 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:45.520 issue of the epidemic and arrogantly approached the issue of the pandemic, and then 40 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:51.280 societies began to show solidarity and help each other. This was superimposed on the 41 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:55.240 election campaign. It combined with the emergence of new political forces, new faces, 42 00:03:55.560 --> 00:04:00.719 which gained some trust during these dynamic events of the summer, and this 43 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:04.280 figure of eighty three percent surprised with its insolence, because all summer you could 44 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:10.520 see how much support, for example Barbarika and later at Tihanalskaya herself. The 45 00:04:10.599 --> 00:04:15.240 United Opposition candidates had huge support, and this insolence really surprised people. They 46 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:18.959 went out onto the street on August ninth, and they did not expect that 47 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:23.759 they would encounter such a wave of repression, because it usually looked like this 48 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:27.720 in two thousand and six. Somehow, this so called tenth town survived a 49 00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:31.120 little over a week after Maidan. It was quite a fashionable phenomenon. Then. 50 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.519 Two thousand and ten two thousand and fifteen are literally a few days of 51 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:40.879 such gentle pacification of the conflict, which did not lead to such a scale, 52 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:44.720 and of course all over the country, which is important, the first 53 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:50.160 three days of the whole country took to the streets. Over the first three 54 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:55.040 days, the whole country took to the streets, not only in large cities 55 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:02.000 but also smaller ones. Leader Malediechna Labin Gina Salijorsk. It clearly surprised the 56 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:06.079 authorities, which expected that this old scenario would work, that they would beat 57 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:15.360 everyone up and in two or three days it would be over. The participant 58 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:19.319 in the protest in Minsk was afraid of his safety and thereful, he asked 59 00:05:19.319 --> 00:05:30.040 for anonymity. I am an actor and teacher. We learned a lot about 60 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.439 people's behavior and how to influence them. I still cannot understand knowing a lot 61 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:38.120 about the Nazis, Hitler, the psyche of such people, about Auschwitz. 62 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:41.839 I just cannot find an answer to the question why people are so cool. 63 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:46.519 The most frightening and incomprehensible for me is that people who say that they are 64 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:50.120 only following orders are laughing when they torment others. Where does so much hate 65 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:55.360 in these people come from? I cannot understand it when I imagine someone detained 66 00:05:55.360 --> 00:06:00.439 in custody his peers, but from the Special Services rape them with a truncheon. 67 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.800 Where can such things appear in their heads? Where did these sick ideas 68 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:09.079 come from? I do not know what the reasons are for these bastards. 69 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:13.439 Do they later jerk off after returning home? Is it exciting? Is it 70 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:17.519 clear? It is clear they are mental perverts. I would never have thought 71 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:25.279 of that. To understand me or that girl Christina, who tortured inhumanely detained 72 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:29.519 boys herself. I understand that there are some political reasons. The person who 73 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:31.519 is ill with power wants to keep this power, and there are those who 74 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:35.800 follow orders without thinking. They just catch everyone. They want to intimidate people. 75 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:42.000 But another matter is this absolute violence and brutal rape, some perverted violence. 76 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:46.560 It's good that fuck me. The detainees were not quartered and eaten in 77 00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:54.600 these torture rooms. Joseph Barrel, head of the European Union's diplomacy in the 78 00:06:54.680 --> 00:07:00.759 European Parliament, drew attention to their level of violence against demonstrators Belarus. Unfortunately, 79 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:06.879 the situation on the ground in Belarus has not improved. It has been 80 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:15.360 continues to be a brutal crackdown against citizens, journalists and against members of the 81 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:26.720 Coordination Council itself. The interior ministers recently authorized to use lethal force. Leath 82 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:33.560 of force and the increasing levels of violence against protesters are extremely worrying. However, 83 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:39.720 the use of violence could not come as a surprise. Alexander Lukashenko's regime 84 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:45.360 reacted this way in the past, and now the authorities were also preparing to 85 00:07:45.399 --> 00:07:50.680 suppress protests. Moreover, some of the resources came from the West. Scenarios. 86 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:58.839 Undoubtedly, the scenario was assumed if it was the main scenario, that 87 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:03.199 is, for the previous terms, the scenario was used and ended successfully for 88 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.319 the authorities. It has never been so brutal. The brutality resulted mainly from 89 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:13.600 surprise, and here in quotation marks the demonstrators themselves are to blame the protest 90 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:18.079 itself, which was decentralized earlier, for example in twenty fifteen, twenty ten, 91 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:22.959 two thousand and six. It was quite easy to detain, arrest, 92 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:26.240 imprison the leaders, the evident leaders of these protests, and in general the 93 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:31.439 technical issue was simply, as they say in Russian cleaning the square, simply 94 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.480 disperse all the people and stop them, create an atmosphere of fear. Of 95 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:39.039 course, this had the effect that after a few days there were no protests. 96 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:41.639 But now I was incredibly surprised by the very nature of the back. 97 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:46.240 You know, you had no more Zikhanoskaya Babarika, and they all sit in 98 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:48.559 prison. People go out alone, do not go out to the square, 99 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:52.799 go out in their yards, in their neighborhood and their small towns. And 100 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.679 of course the authorities are not prepared first of all such a scenario that you 101 00:08:56.679 --> 00:09:00.480 will have to devote all your attention to the whole country, not Mi Minsk. 102 00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:03.679 And the second thing is actually the stubbornness of people who were beaten shot, 103 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:07.559 had stunt grenades thrown at them, and they did not get scared anyway. 104 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:11.360 And the fact that the government assumed such a scenario approves that in the 105 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:16.480 summer a new government was appointed by Lukashenka, and most of the ministers had 106 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:20.240 military experience. Even the Minister of Sport was a former soldier. It is 107 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:24.159 said that there was no election campaign for Lukashenka. There was an election campaign 108 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:31.000 for Lukashenka. He visited various military units, watched the exercises of for example, 109 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:37.080 the same on the internal truths. So they were appropriate preparations. The 110 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:39.759 cars we see now, the huge shields they put on, I suspect they 111 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:45.720 have been preparations for several years because the authorities that ruling camp assumed that there 112 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:50.279 could be a larger scale of protests, especially in twenty twenty, that it 113 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.799 would be a difficult election, and they were properly prepared. Where does it 114 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.200 come from, Well, some of them certainly come from Russia. There is 115 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.559 no one here trying to hide anything as if this is a normal issue in 116 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:05.679 Belarusian realities. As it turned out, the stone grenades came from the Czech 117 00:10:05.720 --> 00:10:09.879 Republic. At least some of the batches. The rubber bullets also partly came 118 00:10:09.879 --> 00:10:13.080 from Poland. In the first days of the protests, Schakowsky showed made in 119 00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:16.919 Poland. It is written that some of the equipment comes from abroad, which 120 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:22.039 imposed sanctions that de facto blocked similar types of transactions. Well, it caused 121 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:26.159 some surprise. While the issue was a bit muffled only one in the Czech 122 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:31.000 Republic. Such inquiries were made to the Czech government through the activity of the 123 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.840 Belarusian diaspora. What is it, Why are they launching grenades from the Czech 124 00:10:33.879 --> 00:10:37.720 Republic. They got a reply that the last batch was sold in two thousand 125 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:54.039 and eleven. Before the sanctions, Alexandra Lukashenko's regime prepared the ground for repression 126 00:10:54.080 --> 00:11:05.840 by using various methods of dehumanization or deligitimization of the opposition, demonization, dehumanization, 127 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:11.240 marginalization of the opposition. This is hard work that the authorities have been 128 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:15.519 doing for the last twenty to twenty five years of its existence, generally from 129 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:18.960 the very beginning. Since the two thousand and one elections and in particular the 130 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:26.639 two thousand and six elections, there have been an especially important moment since the 131 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.720 two thousand and one elections and in particular the two thousand and six elections. 132 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:37.120 These were especially important moments because it was the post Maidan elections, so Maidan 133 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:41.600 two thousand and four. The Belarussian authorities had tied to prepare because the signal 134 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:48.799 was precise that this scenario would be attempted in Belarus, and the two thousand 135 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:52.759 and six elections were the elections when the linguistic processes of the opposition began with 136 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:58.559 renewed vigor. First of all, playing with feelings of nostalgia, using profusely 137 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:03.000 old language still so well. The West is the enemy. The West wants 138 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.919 to destroy us, deconstruct our reality in order to use us. The Belarussian 139 00:12:07.960 --> 00:12:11.960 Democratic opposition wants to do this in Belarus because they get money from the West. 140 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:16.120 This is the initial easiest path that has been open to power then discredit, 141 00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:20.000 but the public no longer believes it. For example, Babarica, Yes, 142 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:24.399 the case of Babarica who took pencils and did everything in the world. 143 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.799 Another one that's having orgies in Turkey and so on. So it's a discrediting 144 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:35.720 of the leaders of a possible protest. It's devaluation. Definition of distinguishing specific 145 00:12:35.799 --> 00:12:39.600 classes or even I would say, the layers of society. First of all 146 00:12:39.639 --> 00:12:43.840 generational ones. For instance, these are young people who have not left puberty. 147 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:46.639 They are prone to drug addiction or alcoholism, and so on and so 148 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:52.679 on, as we will see in the frames after two thousand and six when 149 00:12:52.679 --> 00:12:56.960 they destroyed this tenth town. Then in the TVs just syringes, bottles, 150 00:12:56.039 --> 00:13:01.080 glass and so on, and of course demonization. During summer Lukashenka presented the 151 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:05.960 full extent of the language that these are prostitutes, drug addicts, the social 152 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:11.559 elements of society in general. This work is systematic until the Internet was developed, 153 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:13.919 that is, until the Internet appeared in most Belarussian homes and people in 154 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:18.360 their fifties or sixties gained access to the internet. It worked fine. Of 155 00:13:18.360 --> 00:13:22.159 course, at the time of digitization, the public did not believe it anymore. 156 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:26.879 But evidently language, primarily building a specific language, the language of the 157 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:43.279 image of the opposition, has always existed. Now it has failed because the 158 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:50.639 indoctrination of the state services, especially members of their special militia units on Mona, 159 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:56.279 resulted in the yang Belarussians in the uniform, not only facing the demonstrators 160 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:18.679 but also using brutal violence against them. Few object for this also raises voices. 161 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:22.919 Also after examining when their profiles on social networks were still open, it 162 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:26.519 was possible to find out from the content that they write post comments under the 163 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:31.000 photos that they believe it to some extent. Later anonymous reports appeared in the 164 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:33.519 telegram channels that most of the boys from my part do not want to deal 165 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:37.559 with it, but it will be a punishment later, prisoner punishment. We 166 00:14:37.559 --> 00:14:41.399 can get ten years for not doing this and that. So physical preparation, 167 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:46.200 as we all see, is there there is one great unknown when there is 168 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:50.399 moral preparation. How ideological processing is conducted. Although in the first days of 169 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:54.799 the protest, unlimited violence was assumed, so through this unlimited violence it was 170 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:00.320 necessary to suppress the protests at the very beginning and close the case. However, 171 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.600 the further strategies are that sometimes we hit, sometimes we sometimes harder. 172 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:07.320 Sometimes we do not touch women, but later these women can also be hit. 173 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:13.519 We throw rocket grenades and shoot pensioners during their march. These are decisions 174 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.519 of specific people, the same amon man or person who stands in the ranks 175 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:33.960 of the military and militia will not make such decisions. Initially, regime officials 176 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.600 often refrained from physically attacking women. As a result, the Belarussians sometimes managed 177 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:46.039 to free the arrested men. This has changed over time. Women are now 178 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:50.080 the target of physical attacks, but also repression against their families, against their 179 00:15:50.159 --> 00:16:02.960 children. As underlined by Belarussian sociologist Aleana did Yes, when we talk about 180 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:07.399 detention and physical violence, this applies to all women as well as men, 181 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.799 but men are more likely to suffer physical violence to be beaten. It's a 182 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:18.120 fact that the repression of women is more polished and psychological. Women are being 183 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:22.519 bullied. Women are being bullied and intimidated that they'll be stripped of parental rights, 184 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:29.159 that the children will be taken away. It was the same with Tikhonovskaya. 185 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:33.600 There was a moment when she was threatened with having her children taken away, 186 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:37.879 and at one point set Lana even considered ending her campaign. Here, 187 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:42.600 the authorities have drawn a line for women, you're either an activist and politician, 188 00:16:44.279 --> 00:16:59.200 or you're a wife and mother. The Special Militia Services OMON, however, 189 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:03.319 would only be enough to suppress mass protests on the national scale. The 190 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:11.319 regime used the army for this purpose. Army. Yes, the role of 191 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:18.200 the army is great. The entire top brass was militarized. Lukashenko also understands 192 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:21.680 the significance of this military elite, which, for the most part, if 193 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.640 we are talking about generals and the highest military ranks, is still Soviet for 194 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:30.920 perhaps to some extent post Soviet. So we also assume some pro Russian sentiments. 195 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:34.359 What, in turn, cannot be said about the younger composition of officers 196 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:38.839 who have already grown up in the conditions of Belarus. Even a few cases 197 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:45.359 also appeared on the internet when they resigned from service. This protest began to 198 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:49.000 unfold in August later when the Sunday marches appeared and on Saturday, the so 199 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:55.000 called internal troops became more involved. Clearly Amon was not up to the task. 200 00:17:56.279 --> 00:18:00.400 There is also such data that it is about one thousand, five hundred 201 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:04.599 people, and obviously it has simply not covered within the country, okay, 202 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:07.880 in midsk but in the country it will be quite difficult, and that's why 203 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:12.319 soldiers of the internal troops were also recruited. Therefore, the role of the 204 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:17.359 army is large. The generals must also have certain guarantees, because at some 205 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:21.200 point it will also become clear that they too could make the right decision, 206 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:26.599 which would not be in line with Lukashenka's The ruling camp, headed by Lukashenka 207 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:30.559 or some top elite, understood perfectly well that it was necessary to deal with 208 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:33.839 the army first of all with a militia and in order to keep the ranks, 209 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:48.079 and so far it has been successful. Clashes in the streets are the 210 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:55.119 most visible part of the confrontation with the demonstrators. The Pularotian KGB, the 211 00:18:55.160 --> 00:19:00.680 Public Security Committee, is also active in the background. The service, originating 212 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:06.759 from the Soviet era, is responsible for intelligence and counter intelligence, but also, 213 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:19.960 and perhaps above all, for maintaining control over its own society. Every 214 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:25.079 large and small town in Belarus has its own KGB branch, and of course 215 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:29.920 the right job was done all the time. Kidnappings of various kinds of persecution 216 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:33.839 seemed to be a permanent element of active social and political life in Belarus. 217 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:37.920 On August ninth, however, there was much more to this work. Watching 218 00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:44.119 hasty decisions like tzikanoskayas and expelling them from the country on a quickly adopted strategy 219 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:48.480 or taking all the members of the coordinating council abroad simply expelling them. And 220 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:53.759 it was callis Nikova who was surprised by destroying her passport that she clearly managed 221 00:19:53.799 --> 00:19:59.079 her break this pattern a little. A certain surprise existed and functioned in the 222 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:03.400 sense that it was related that a lot of work suddenly happened, but kidnappings 223 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:07.440 arrests creating fictitious cases. This is a plot that has always been occupied by 224 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:11.799 the Belarussian KGB, but now there is a much larger scale of it, 225 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:15.400 and you do not have to forget about your friends in Russia. Frequent visits, 226 00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:22.160 especially in August early September, of FSB planes to Minsk. Recently, 227 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:26.799 there was also a visit by Narishkin, the director of the Russian FSB, 228 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:30.039 who was meeting with Lukashenka. It can also be said that there is a 229 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:34.960 plan with covert coordination by Russia's special services. They are trying to clean the 230 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:47.680 space locally with the local Belarussian KGB zat. One of the methods of silently 231 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:56.440 intimidating Belarussians is to deprive them of their livelihood. What has been going on 232 00:20:56.519 --> 00:21:02.359 for the last twenty years is happening in a nutshells. Economic repressions have always 233 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:04.920 been there, now they are just on a much larger scale. You can 234 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:08.640 also guess that the system of employing people was also done for it, that 235 00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:12.640 is so called contracts. Not like, for example, in Poland that after 236 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:18.079 three years you get a contract for an indefinite period, in Belarus you get 237 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:21.559 a contract all the time with the management's decision for a year, two or 238 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:25.440 three. But all this time is precisely defined so as not to extend the 239 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:30.079 contract or to extend it. It was also related to the reform of the 240 00:21:30.119 --> 00:21:33.839 pension system, but also to be able to carry out the so called economic 241 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:41.079 repressions. Belarussian society, however, is allergic and material plane again here referring 242 00:21:41.119 --> 00:21:45.960 to the social contract that it has concluded with society. We guarantee you jobs 243 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:49.319 and develop peacefully, live staff families, take loans and live a normal life. 244 00:21:49.799 --> 00:21:55.160 After this contract was broken, after the largest factories plants in Belarus woke 245 00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:59.039 up, it was of course remembered that economic repression should be you to suppress 246 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:03.759 this freedom movement to the prey beginning, including the union movement in workplaces and 247 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:19.480 an example of this method is two musicians members of the band Irdorat, who 248 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:26.880 posted a short statement on social media. They became famous for street performances of 249 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:40.200 the song Pyreman Changes by Victor Toy and the Russian band Kino Alexandrovitchamoli. That 250 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:48.200 stive Anger's dancecape. But it's changes. For changes, we have to enter 251 00:22:49.079 --> 00:22:55.440 Brasilvania. Yeah, wor d Due to social activity, they were dismissed from 252 00:22:55.519 --> 00:23:07.319 Culture Center, where they had been working for years. Is just that Irdorad 253 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:15.759 has no home, But everything will be fine. Could always wins. Despite 254 00:23:15.799 --> 00:23:21.799 the use of brute force, protesting Belarus have not ceased. They change, 255 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:27.240 The regime continues. They're also margyrs readings, cyber partisans are fighting. The 256 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:33.480 art of resistance is being born. Beilar Russians remember history. Please listen to 257 00:23:33.519 --> 00:23:48.680 the next podcasts devoted to the Pillar Russian Awakening podcast produced by Free Range Productions.