The father of Maria Kolesnikov, a member of the Presidium of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian Opposition, has rejected the statements of President Alexander Lukashenko that his daughter wanted to flee to Ukraine with her sister, stressing that it would not be in line with her convictions.
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In an interview with several Kremlin-controlled Russian media on Tuesday, September 8, Lukashenko announced that Kolesnikov himself planned to leave Belarus, but was detained when his companions pushed him out of the car.
Meanwhile, the Interfax agency, citing a source close to Kolesnikov, reported that one of the most visible leaders of the protest movement had been forced to leave Belarus, but she resisted and tore up her passport before crossing the border so that she would not be allowed into Ukraine but then detained.
Lukashenko’s version has also been rejected by her father, Alexander Kolesnikov.
“Masha always repeated to me – no matter what happens, I will always be in Belarus. That was her fundamental conviction,” he told Tut.by.
Kolesnikov has stated that on Monday, September 7, he submitted an application to the Minsk militia for the disappearance of his daughter, but has not received any answer so far and all the information about what may be happening to his daughter is obtained only from the Internet.
The headquarters of former presidential candidate Viktor Babariko, headed by Kolesnikov, said he had been detained and was at the Mozir border checkpoint in Gomel region, citing a number of unnamed sources.
A representative of the Belarusian State Border Guard Committee, answering a question from the agency “Interfax”, refused to confirm or deny the information about the location of Kolesnikov in this section.
Babariko’s headquarters has approached the Belarusian authorities to demand the whereabouts of Kolesnikov, and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee has reported her disappearance to a UN task force on disappearances.
As Maxim Znak, a colleague of Kolesnikov in the opposition coordination council, told Tut.by, despite the threats and possible repression, Maria has always emphasized that she does not intend to leave Belarus, even after another council member, Olga Kovalkova, recently announced that she exported from Belarus to Poland.
“Mary forced them to return to the field of justice, and now her detention will have to be justified,” Znak emphasized. “Tell me, what crime, or at least a crime, was committed by a Belarusian citizen who passed customs control and passport control and was allegedly ‘pushed’ out of a car whose driver is not obeying the patrol order? What has this man violated?” he asked, expressing hope that Kolesnikov would be released in the coming days.
It has already been reported that Kolesnikov was abducted on the streets of Minsk on Monday, September 7, in obscure conditions by civilians dressed in masks and taken by minibus, but on Tuesday morning, September 8, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported that she had been detained trying to leave Country.
Anton Rodnenkov, press secretary of the Coordinating Council, and Ivan Kravtsov, executive secretary, who stopped answering phone calls on Monday, crossed the Ukrainian border on Tuesday after pressure from the Belarusian authorities.
According to the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko, the departure of opposition representatives from Belarus cannot be called voluntary, because in fact it was an expulsion by force.
Several other members of the Steering Board have recently been detained.
The 38-year-old Kolesnikova announced a week ago that a new party “Vmeste” (“Together”) is being founded in Belarus, which will try to achieve political, social and economic reforms in the country. She is also a witness in a criminal case initiated by the Belarusian Committee of Inquiry into an attempt to seize power in connection with the establishment of the Coordinating Council.
Shortly after the August 9 presidential election, Belarus was forced to leave and take refuge in Lithuania by opposition candidate Svetlana Tihanovska, who tried to lodge a complaint with the Central Election Commission the day after the election, allegedly receiving threats against her children and husband.
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