Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk: There Is No Sane Person In Belarus Who Supports Lukashenka

Belarusians rebelled against the system in 2020.

Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, a coordinator of the European Belarus Civil Campaign who endured over four years in the dungeons of Belarus's ruling regime, was released on February 1 this year. She arrived in Vilnius last week after she walked free.

A few days after arriving in the Lithuanian capital, Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk gave a press conference, which was held in the Belarusian language.

At the end of the press conference, the Voice of America correspondent spoke with Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk. When asked about her treatment by the guards in the punishment cell, Palina described her experience as torture. "It was a combination of physical and psychological terror. The attitude was, of course, exclusively mocking. This was evident in every detail — how you had to stand, speak, ensure all buttons were fastened, shoes were properly maintained, and everything was kept tidy. They were given free rein to carry out open, unpunished terror against political prisoners, and they certainly took full advantage of it," she recalled from her time in prison.

Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk stated that, at this point, it's pointless to discuss the existence of any opposition in Belarus. She explains why: "For centuries, Belarus has been under Russian occupation, with Russia consistently keeping the country as its vassal in one way or another. And throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, every generation of Belarusians staged uprisings. I see 2020 as a rebellion not just against Lukashenka, but also against the system he has established."

Explaining why there are no mass protests in Belarus now, the former political prisoner gives examples of North Korea and the occupied Ukrainian regions, where people also do not organize demonstrations against the regime. “Because taking to the streets is very risky. In Belarus, they have already started confiscating apartments (from those who oppose the regime). And people cannot, as in civilized countries, express their protest in the streets, or sign some kind of appeal against the authorities. Because a repressive system, typically used against terrorists, can be turned against them. And if a woman on the street opens a White-Red-White umbrella, she will be treated as if she had hijacked a plane with hostages," shares Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk, giving examples.

Palina concludes that people in Belarus choose a safe existence for themselves: “This does not mean that they loved the Lukashenka regime or himself and agree with everything he does there, but the situation is such that Belarusians feel like there’s a gun to the back of their heads. Representatives of the Lukashenka administration said: 'We will hold the elections in such a way that no one will even squeak.' And this is the situation of today's Belarus."

At the same time, according to Palina, the protest potential in the country has not gone away: "There is no sane person in Belarus who supports Lukashenka. And it's not about him, because he is a puppet. Russia, unfortunately, found such a unique figure in Belarus, which, like a magnet, attracted all evil spirits, all scoundrels – both obvious and potential – and concentrated around him. And this is fed financially from Russia – you do evil, and you also get paid for it. This is generally “gorgeous”.

"There are no economic sanctions for the detention of many thousands of political prisoners against the Lukashenka regime"

The press conference was led by Natallia Radzina, the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter'97 portal, known as one of the most consistent and irreconcilable opponents of the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

Recently, there have been multiple suggestions in the information space to strike a deal with the Belarusian dictator: lifting all economic sanctions, both sectoral and personal, in exchange for the release of all political prisoners. Natalla Radzina is sharply negative about this idea.

In an interview with a correspondent, she explained: "Economic sanctions against the Lukashenka regime have been imposed today for other crimes. Namely: for the landing of the Ryanair aircraft in 2021, for the migration crisis, which began at the same time – when the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were attacked from the territory of Belarus. And also for the participation of the Belarusian regime in the war against Ukraine. "There are no economic sanctions for the detention of many thousands of political prisoners against the Lukashenka regime"

Radzina sums up that it is impossible to change the lifting of sanctions against the Belarusian economy to the release of all political prisoners – in her opinion, instead, it is necessary to introduce new sanctions and demand the release of absolutely all prisoners of conscience from the regime.

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