Insatiable Horde

What did Lukashenko get for freeing the priests?

No, of course, we are all far from naive and do not expect miracles. But we continue to stubbornly believe in them, like children in the tooth fairy. When it was announced that the border crossings with Poland would be opened on the night of November 17, and there were first hours and then minutes left until the opening, I still believed that the first person to cross the newly opened border would be a man named Andrzej Poczobut. But he never appeared at any border checkpoint.

Logic suggested: there was nothing to wait for, he would not be released. And when the migrants, who had been storming the Polish border for several years already, and often successfully, suddenly disappeared from the Belarusian side after the opening of border checkpoints, it became clear that they were the ones in question during the last negotiations between Belarus and Poland. And Poczobut - well, okay, he probably doesn't want to.

And anyway, the first days after the opening of the checkpoints (and, of course, the last days before their opening), I was constantly wandering through news sites and social networks in the hope to find news about Poczobut. At least a signal, a hint, an allusion. I kept visiting his wife Oksana's Facebook page. Apparently, there were many of us - those who hoped that Pochobut would be released in response to the opening of the two border crossings. Oksana wrote: "A lot of questions have come in the last few days re: whether we have good news. They are probably provoked by rumors about the opening of the borders with Poland. I thank everyone who hoped for the release of Andrzej Poczobut. But everything remains the same. Andrzej is still in a cell for a term that is unlikely to end for him even with a formal end. Let's not be deceived, it's all a political game that has worn out my family over the years and in which human life means nothing."

Oksana is right. One can recall how, after the closure of the Bobrovniki-Berestovitsa border crossing point and the Polish Interior Minister's statement that the crossing would be reopened immediately after Andrzej Poczobut's release, Lukashenko portrayed sincere indignation and yelled: "How can you change a man for a border crossing point?!" Perhaps at that moment he was trying to believe in his own lies, but this time it didn't work: it sounded too pathetic and fake. Then a certain Voskresensky went on the state airwaves, telling terrible stories about the evil Pochobut, whom he, Voskresensky, had come to as a well-wisher and even a savior, and the latter had attacked him with fists.

Voskresensky's role was to tell on every corner how Pochobut was trying with all his might to get out of prison, but he wouldn't agree. They say that the ambassador came to see him, and many other people, but he almost chained himself to a radiator in order not to be released. It is this narrative that the Polish government may have been able to feed: we are ready, but he doesn't want to. Although now everyone knows how it happens: no one asks the prisoner whether he wants something or not - they simply command him to "get out with his things," put a bag over his head, and take him to Lithuania. Of course, I don't want Andrzej to be deported with a bag over his head - I'm just reminding you how it happens. Not a single political prisoner of all those who were forcibly removed from Belarus was asked a single question. Nikolai Statkevich immediately staged a protest right at the border - he refused to be a commodity. Only after his desperate action the expulsion of political prisoners abroad was no longer called liberation.

So Pochobut is not a person for Lukashenko, but a commodity, and an expensive one at that. And he hopes to sell him as dearly as possible. The checkpoints were opened without Pochobut's release - they managed to get rid of migrants nobody needs. (I think their absence is either temporary, or the beneficiaries of this business have already received maximum profit.) And Pochobut is a one-of-a-kind, branded product, not a mass-market item. You can bargain for it something more serious, and at the level of the whole European Union, not just Poland.

Also, everyone waited in vain for the release of the journalist of "Belsat" Katerina Andreeva. After all the "Belsat" journalists, who were behind bars, were promised to be released within the framework of the "big deal" with the American side. But Katerina is no longer just a separate journalist-politician. Now she also has a husband in jail. And for a married couple, especially for a couple of journalists, one can get a much bigger prize than for a single one.

So I wouldn't be surprised if Lukashenko got something for the two Catholic priests released yesterday. His greed is boundless, and his insatiability is limitless. They say about such people "a lot". And, judging by his current size, it is a huge horde.

Irina Khalip, specially for Charter97.org.

You can support the website Charter97.org

MULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:

Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims

You can contact us by the e-mail [email protected]