Pussy Riot: Natallia Kachanava Called And Apologized For Entry Ban

Lukashenka appointed the head of his administration "the one in charge of apologies"?

Lukashenka's administration confirmed the fact of the conversation, but refused to comment on its content, Radio Svaboda reports.

Head of the Department of Citizenship and Migration Aliaksei Biahun confirmed to journalists that Olga Kurachaeva and Veronika Nikulshina are not subject to a ban on entry into Belarus, and they can come to the European Games in Minsk.

Olga Kurachaeva and Veronika Nikulshina provided a recording of the conversation with a woman who introduced herself as the head of the Lukashenka's administration, Natallia Kachanava, and expressed regret about the incident and invited them to come to Belarus.

June 17, members of the band Pussy Riot, who flew to Kiev with a transfer in Minsk, were put a stamp on the ban on entry into Belarus until 2020. This fact was confirmed by the spokesman for the Border Committee of Belarus then.

A member of the band, Pyotr Verzilov, told reporters that the girls were first contacted by someone who identified himself as a representative of the Interior Ministry. He specified their phone numbers, and later there was a call to Telegram.

Here is its transcript:

- Olga Vladimirovna, it is Head of Administration of Belarus Natallia Kachanava speaking.

- It's a pleasure... And could you speak a little louder, the connection is not very good.

- Olga Vladimirovna, we are monitoring the situation here. And Aliaksandr Ryhoravich, our president, learned about this situation that there are allegedly, some claims against you. Well, you know, we have no claims against you. Olga Vladimirovna, the Belarusian side has no claims against you. If you want to come, please, come, we'll be glad to welcome you... Well, you know, as always, our bodies are overcaut… they did too much work somewhere, it's not clear on what issues, so it happened like it happened...

- We understand, thank you very much.

- I say that there was surprise, just surprise - why, for what? We learnt it from the media, our president said: "God, what is it? And what are our questions to them? There are no questions. Okay, no questions, so I'm calling you. So, Olga Vladimirovna, goodbye to you.

***

"If our databases do not contain information that they are banned from entering the territory of the Republic of Belarus, they will be allowed to enter the country," the spokesperson for the Border Committee, Anton Bychkousky, said. He refused to report whether the entry ban on girls had been lifted because it was personal information.

"Of course, we were very surprised," – Pyotr Verzilov said. - First of all, we were struck by an unexpected ban, as the girls did not fly to Minsk and had no plans to go out in Minsk. It was obvious to all the competent authorities that they were flying from Moscow to Kiev and had no plans to stay in Belarus.

And the fact of such a call was doubly surprising, as Belarus is known for its rather strict attitude to dissidents. But it is nice that the country's leaders reacted to this strange ban so quickly and lifted it with a personal call from the head of the Lukashenka's administration. Both me and the girls were very surprised by this fact."

It is worth mentioning that not long ago Kachanava apologized to the Romani people who were raided by the Interior Ministry.