“I made my choice.” The stories of police and army officers who resigned after the election.

18 August, 2020, 11:56, TUT.BY

Across the country, people have begun to resign from the army and the police after the brutal crackdown on protests. We have gathered several stories in which former employees describe why they can’t watch the violence, why they don’t want to face the demonstrators with riot shields, and why their colleagues who don’t like the system continue to remain part of it.

“Everyone must follow the law, at all times”

Artyom Nikulin served as a police officer for almost seven years. He worked in the Economic Crimes Division of the Grodno Regional Executive Administration’s Department for Internal Affairs (DIA).

“On the eve of the election, I was a reservist, but moment ‘X’ could arrive when I’d have to go out to face everyone with a riot shield,” he explains. “When I saw what happened after the protests (the brutal crackdown and beatings — TUT.BY), I said that I don’t agree with it. I thought it was wrong to just say something but remain in the system, so I quit. They didn’t try to stop me, I resigned with mutual agreement, and I’ve already paid back around 6,300 rubles for the remaining portion of my contract that I didn’t fulfill. First my family learned of my decision, then my friends. They began to tell their friends, and I posted about it on Instagram. I simply wanted to show my police officer friends who are of a similar mindset that they are not alone. There was such a wave of support, strangers wrote to me and called, offering help — with education, finding a job, financial aid, people raised about 4,000 rubles for me. I’m really grateful to everyone.

It’s very scary when I see the images of people being beaten. You see, there are legal norms, which, in my opinion, everyone must follow, at all times. You can’t hide behind some kind of circumstances. I don’t want to categorize all the crimes using a “one size fits all” approach, but it’s clearly evident that several police officers committed crimes from the point of view of the law. The law “On the Internal Affairs institutions” clearly identifies instances in which DIA employees may use physical force and non-lethal weapons. There is one line that clearly conveys the illegality of police actions. You can read in the media exactly how the law is written, that a police officer, who is unable to apprehend a suspect in a non-violent way, is required to try to inflict the least possible harm. You can see how this part of the law, to put it mildly, is not being followed.

I’m sure that no one gave orders to beat people up; I haven’t heard anything like that. So if that’s the case, the responsibility falls directly on each individual employee who exceeded his/her own authority. I can recall several examples when people were fired from the DIA for far smaller crimes, for example, when a police officer verbally abused a detainee.

I don’t know why there was such brutality. Maybe, the special forces were told that the protestors weren’t peaceful demonstrators, but rather enemies, people with knives in their hands, people who want to destroy the system. It was impressed upon every one that it is forbidden to go out to the square. Although, in reality, it was clear that there were no terrorists there.

What are my plans for the future? I haven’t found a new job yet. I know SQL and databases. Maybe it’s time to try something in that field? But I’d really like for everything that is happening in Belarus to not be for nothing. I hope that everything can change peacefully. And for now, I’m thinking about how I can help others.” 

“It’s ridiculous when they arrest people who simply want to honestly observe”

Vitaly Belizhenko worked as a police officer for 17 years. He worked in Vitebsk’s Pervomaisky DIA in a variety of roles — an investigator, criminal investigations officer, senior high-tech crime investigator, deputy head of the criminal investigation department and, his most recent title, head of the department for safeguarding law and order and prevention.

The way the situation developed, I couldn’t continue to serve,” he said. “If, during previous elections, we tried to act in accordance with the law, then now… There was an article on TUT.BY about election observers who were arrested at a school, and then released, and an apology was issued. I was the one who apologized to them. I released them because it’s truly ridiculous when people are arrested for nothing, people who simply want to honestly observe what’s happening. This was followed by the disproportionate use of force against peaceful demonstrators. I resigned for missing work on August 13; there was no other choice. I’ll have to pay back 6,000 rubles because I didn’t complete my contractual obligations. The head of the district DIA accepted my resignation. He’s a good person and has always operated in accordance with the law. He thanked me for my service, because the quality of my work was never in doubt, and said: “It’s your decision, do what you think is best.”

The decision to leave the police force was not an easy one. I was three years short of 20 years of service. I would have qualified for a pension at the age of 48. But I decided that I wouldn’t wait for that; it was better to quit now. Another reason why many hold onto police jobs — they have to pay out their contract signing bonus.

When they brought in the people they’d arrested, such as those observers or people arrested for “illegal protests,” I said outright that I wouldn’t write up the arrest record. All of my employees can confirm this. I was always against that kind of thing. I was never punished for this; you can refuse to do so; there’s always a choice. And now I’ve made my decision to leave the police, and all of my family supported it. I can’t explain why members of the police are using such force, but I was really upset when I saw the photos of the beatings.”

“I read that they wanted to ‘drag me in’, and I couldn’t believe that those are the same guys I served with” 

Vladislav Nevdakh was, until recently, a precinct police officer in Brest. However, on August 13, he resigned after spending several days bringing detainees up from detention center to the court.

“At the age of 17, I entered the law enforcement college department at the DIA’s Academy, and I worked in the division for economic crimes. This past year, I was a precinct police officer in the Brest’s Moscow district DIA,” he explains. “They gathered us together even before the election, in groups, and they gave us riot shields and batons, and trained us to drive back a crowd. On August 2, they said: “if you don’t want to take part in this, you can resign.” That’s when I thought I should quit my job. I hoped it could be avoided that I wouldn’t be asked to do that. A week passed, and, on August 8, I was on the list to go to the square if protests occurred. I was given equipment. After that, I went to the head of the district DIA and said that I don’t want to take part. They said they understood me and removed my name from the list. 

On election day, August 9, I spent the night at a voting site, and, starting August 10, I was assigned to guard the district police station because there was information that an attack was supposedly planned. On August 11-12, I was sent to the pre-trial detention center to take care of the detainees whom I accompanied from the cell to the court, which took place here as well, in the temporary containment cell. As I understood it, there was an instruction not to let anyone take over the squares. If you look at the administrative case paperwork, there isn’t any kind of proof — the arrest record, report, and interrogation by the police officer, like a carbon copy, the documents were hastily drawn up by people who had never even performed this kind of work before.

During the first day, I brought 20 people to court. Of that group, 19 of them hadn’t even taken part in the protests; they were randomly arrested. A typical story: “I walked outside, I didn’t know what was going on, then I was suddenly grabbed.” But there was one story that affected me the most. Among those arrested was an engineer from one of Brest’s leading companies. He is 52 years old, an intelligent and respectable person. On August 9, his son disappeared, so he came to the district police station. He was brought to the officer on duty, who told him to wait. Time passed; they didn’t give him any information. The father again asked the officer on duty: “Where’s my son?”. And he was told: “Let’s go. I’ll show you.” The officer takes the man into a cell — “here’s your son —  and locks them both behind bars. The engineer was charged with taking part in the protests on the street not far from the district police station, which is a total lie. There wasn’t even any kind of protest there. 

While we waited for the court, I helped people as best as I could. I told them what they should say in court so that they wouldn’t be given fines, not prison sentences. For example, to talk about their children. People were held in custody for three days before going before the court for doing nothing. On August 13, I had to bring women to the court. I looked at them and didn’t understand what they were even doing there. One woman was arrested simply because she was wearing red and white clothes. That was the final straw; I submitted my letter of resignation. I immediately received threats from my colleagues. I read that they wanted to ‘drag me in’, and I couldn’t believe that those are the same guys I served with.

I was supported by my wife, father, and friends. Several of my relatives had really negative reactions. They said that I had to go back to my boss and beg on my knees for my job back. But I made my choice. Yes, I have a mortgage of 900 rubles per month, my wife is on maternity leave with a small child, and I have to pay back 15,000 rubles for part of the contract I didn’t do, but I can’t stay there any longer. I never hid my own face, I always served honestly, and I don’t want to break the law or carry out criminal orders.

I resigned for missing work. There was no other way because no one was going to accept my resignation by mutual agreement. I still had years left to work off for the years I studied at the Academy. But I have the support of my friends and my wife. I’ll apply for a visa and go to Poland to work — I’ll pay everything back, but I won’t go back to work for them, because honor and dignity are more important.

You see, those days, the police force’s normal work was set on the backburner. There was this feeling that it was not peacetime but wartime. There were reports of people being shot in the cheek. In the past, that would have led to a declaration of an emergency, and everyone would have been mobilized. Now, no one paid particular attention to this; everyone was preoccupied with putting out the protests. Everyone was brought in — criminal investigators, the economic crimes division, desk officers  — the entire police force. When people asked why they were arrested, they were told, “Why the f*** did you go out?”. When parents asked why their children were arrested, they were told, “Why the f*** did you let them go?”

When I saw a photo of people who had been beaten, I was shocked. I don’t know how to explain that kind of aggression. Maybe the officers acted that way because there were provocateurs in the crowd throwing stones at them, who wanted to fight and threw firecrackers at their feet. One told me, “I started to make them all pay for that.” All the people, you understand? Not the individual who really broke the law. And when I asked why everyone without differentiating, he didn’t have an explanation.

“It’s not about the money. You can’t sit back and calmly watch the mess taking place” 

We’re not naming the next person at their request. This individual is worried about their safety. In 2014, the individual was accepted to the Military Academy and started working there after graduation. 

“I understood right away that I would work my five years and will not extend my contract because I didn’t see any potential for growth in the army,” he said. “But in the end, I wasn’t even able to complete that term because of what started to happen with the election. Two months before the election, I learned that approximately 700 cadets from the Military Academy would be used to disperse crowds (there are approximately 1,500 cadets in total at the academy). That was the order that came down. 

I immediately said that I wouldn’t take part in that, because I don’t think that military personnel should beat civilians. I was told: “The motherland has ordered, and you will go. You don’t have a choice”. But I insisted, and I told the attestation committee directly: “You don’t need a lieutenant who isn’t going to execute orders.” They threatened to charge me with desertion. But everything that’s happening now is inhumane. I didn’t agree either with what was happening in the military after I had served.

How do young guys see the whole thing? They don’t understand anything. It was the same while I was studying. Information from the outside doesn’t get in. They take away your phones, but now the guys know how to hide them better than we did back in the day. But they’re still zombies: there is non-stop propaganda, especially before the election. They repeat that we need stability, look how much Lukashenko has done in 26 years, look at how it was in the 1990s. They talk about the people protesting: that they’re on the wrong path, alcoholics, and drug addicts, unemployed, people who you pay next to nothing, and they go protest. And if you’re in that closed-off environment, you simply don’t see or hear what’s actually happening. And, you have to follow orders, that’s the foundation of the entire army. You don’t ask questions; you don’t doubt, you just dumbly follow your commanding officer’s orders. They threaten you from above: with desertion, kicking you out, or firing you. You’d have to pay back everything the government spent on you. Look, they gave me a bill for $20,000. I made my choice, but not everyone is brave enough.

I’m far from believing that those horrible beatings that we’ve learned about were at the hands of cadets because half of them are kids. I’m more inclined to believe that those were conscripts who quit and went to work for the OMON riot police. But no one is making them beat people up. I’m sure that there isn’t a single boss or commander who gave such an order. It’s just impunity. They did it once, noticed that there were no consequences, and now they do what they want.

I left the army one month before the election because I understood that they could drag me into what we’re seeing now. I’m against that system that currently exists in the military. When we first joined, they didn’t tell anyone that something like this could happen. It’s the young guys who will have to answer for what’s happening. There are many examples of this in the military, so I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the guys will later have to serve time.

I’m now working as a tester; during my time in the army, I learned English and completed courses in the IT academy. Half of my salary is taken to pay back the Academy. I think that far more people would leave the military if it wasn’t for the financial burden. But I don’t have any regrets. It’s not about the money. You can’t sit back and calmly watch the mess taking place. I knew that it would end like this. Because if people expect a fair election, you don’t need to practice breaking up protests two months ahead of time.”