29 October 2020 | Infocenter Free Belarus 2020
Good morning, the 82nd day of the protests begins.
8:02 am Minsk. BSMU teachers have initiated the collection of signatures for their appeal to the University Chancellor, S. P. Rubnikovich. They stress that they disagree with repressions and expulsion of students and call for all their colleagues to join the appeal. If their demands are not met, they remind them that they will reserve their lawful right to go on strike.
8:12 am Salihorsk. Salihorsk medical staff have joined a solidarity event in support of their colleagues, medical students and workers on strike.
8:13 am The Belarus-1 state TV channel has broadcast the statement made by the Prosecutor General of Belarus, Andrei Shved, announcing the number of criminal cases initiated in connection with peaceful protests. In total, 657 criminal cases have been initiated in Belarus. Two hundred citizens have already been charged, 70 cases forwarded to courts and 9 cases have verdicts. Most of the sentences restrict the freedom of the individual.
8:18 am Minsk. The traditional action “Night of the executed poets” will take place today in Kurapaty. In 1937, in one night, the NKVD shot more than a hundred representatives of the Belarusian intelligentsia, writers, scientists and politicians.
8:19 am Hrodna. The court fined blogger Vadim Ermashuk (Vadimati) 20 basic units for participating in an unsanctioned mass event. In August, the blogger moderated rallies of protesters and authorities.
8:33 am Minsk. The name and route of the new Sunday march have become known. It will coincide with All Souls Day in Belarus – Dzyady.
The “We won’t forget, we won’t forgive!” March will be held on 1 November. People will walk from the metro station Park Chelyuskintsev along Independence Avenue – Kalinovskogo Street – Karbysheva Street – Gamarnika Street – Miroshnichenko Street to Kurapaty Tract.
8:55 am At about 7:30 am, a young man stood near the entrance to the Mazyr Oil Refinery with a white-red-white poster: “Aren’t you ashamed before Azot?”
First, the guard talked to him and then the police took the guy to the police station. His name is Vyacheslav; he is in the Mazyr District Department of Internal Affairs now.
9:08 am Pavel Latushka: Sanction lists of teachers, rectors and deans who put pressure on students are being prepared.
9:14 am Security forces and riot police detained at least 38 people in Belarus on Wednesday during protests and strikes that are taking place at enterprises and universities.
9:25 am After yesterday’s speeches of BSMU students, the police came to the university. Passages between buildings are now closed. There is a minibus near the building.
9:37 am One more employee of the Homel portal “Strong News” was detained.
Evgeny Suvorov went to the store in the evening and ended up at the police station.
9:14 am Even though the administration called the police, the rallies in support of the expelled students began at the Belarusian State Medical University.
Students plan to hold events at BSMU all day. The main gathering is at 4:00 pm, near the administration building. At 4:30 pm, it will continue on the street near the university, together with doctors and everyone who is not indifferent.
9:49 am First layoffs at BSUIR. @devby reports that the dean of the Faculty of Computer Systems and Networks, Marina Lukashevich, refused to sign the order for the expulsion of students from her faculty and wrote a statement of her own free will. In a faculty chat, she asked her students not to protest her departure.
9:53 am The work-to-rule strike continues at MAZ, @radiosvaboda reports.
Two participants of the strike on 26 October were dismissed. Three more were deprived of 25% of their salary and four were reprimanded.
According to the @radiosvaboda source, more than 50 workers at the plant are continuing the work-to-rule strike. The administration has now imposed tight controls. The most politically active people are regularly summoned for negotiations with the leadership.
10:01 am The @devby source also said that the candidate of technical sciences, associate professor Valery Prytkov, left BSUIR. According to him, the management of BSUIR informed the teacher, “known for his solidarity with Belarusian citizens,” that he would not renew the contract, and on 26 October he wrote a statement.
10:04 am In the morning a queue of people lined up at Akrestsina Street, who are waiting to be able to hand over parcels to the detainees. As a reminder, now parcels are only accepted here on Thursdays.
10:05 am Doctors of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center “Cardiology” came out to support the students.
10:21 am BSMU students dressed in black today.
10:34 am The famous opera singer Ilya Silchuk has released a video for the Christian hymn, “God Almighty”.
Ilya Silchuk, the leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus and winner of 16 international vocal competitions, was fired from the Opera House yesterday after showing solidarity with the citizens of Belarus.
Two weeks ago, the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Metropolitan Benjamin, shamefully forbade believers to sing the hymn “God Almighty.”
10:54 am Yury Karaieu spoke about the weapons of the Belarusian protesters – slingshots.
Slingshots are a new feature of Belarusian propagandists. Interior Minister Yury Karaieu spoke about this super-weapon of protesters in Belarus: “One got a job at MAZ to make slingshots at work.”
11:01 am The leading actor of the Republican Theater of Belarusian Drama, Andrei Novik, resigned from the theater.
“I can’t help but support the strikers.”
11:07 am The legend of the Belarusian biathlon, Olympic champion Nadezhda Skardino, signed a letter from athletes against violence and for the resignation of Lukashenko.
Now there are precisely 1,000 signatures under the statement!
11:15 am In BNTU, along with an extract about familiarization with the order for expulsion, they issue a summons to the military registration and enlistment office.
11:19 am Valery Vakulchyk became Lukashenko’s assistant in the Brest region. He spent a month and a half as Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus. He is now just another puppet of the Belarusian government.
11:19 am The Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Belarus accuses Lithuania of discrediting BelNPP in the eyes of the European community.
The Ministry of Energy of Belarus regards Lithuania’s note of protest as an unsuccessful attempt to discredit the BelNPP project in the eyes of the European community.
11:24 am Students show their solidarity despite being expelled from BSMU.
11:39 am At the Minsk Academy of Arts, graduates came to support the students and talk with the rector. They were told that the rector was not present, and the first vice-rector fell ill, readers wrote.
11:47 am Lukashenko dismissed the Minister of Internal Affairs, Yury Karaieu.
The last statement of Karaieu was about his concern about the use of slingshots.
11:49 am Students begin to gather for a strike at the journalism faculty of the Belarusian State University.
12:10 pm Ivan Kubrakou, the former head of the Minsk police, is appointed as new head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus. It should be mentioned that he is the first Belarusian in this position over the past 24 years, since the time of Yuri Zakharenko.
12:20 pm The ex-head of the Security Council of Belarus, Vakulchyk, is Lukashenko’s aide for the Brest region. The ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Karaieu, is his aide for the Hrodna region, and the former deputy head of the Minsk police, Barsukou, is in charge of the Minsk region.
12:24 pm A teacher, Maya Gavryuchenkova, was fired from BSUIR. She had previously joined the strike.
12:36 pm Student protests and solidarity actions are held in almost all universities in the country.
12:38 pm Employees of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Oncology are standing in a solidarity chain in support of expelled BSMU students.
12:41 pm The list of expelled students includes 52 people from the Belarusian National Technical University and 21 from the Belarusian State Medical University. The total number of people who have been expelled and dismissed in the last few days in Belarus must have reached hundreds.
12:53 pm Police have broken into the building of the Belarusian State University of Physical Culture. At least one student is detained.
12:58 pm The Brest State Technical University has issued an order prohibiting administrative orders from being published on the Internet.
1:00 pm Police are patrolling the area around the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, detaining the students as soon as they exit the University building.
1:01 pm Pupils of the Minsk Secondary School No. 4 have managed to persuade the school administration to let them have an assembly hall for meetings during break time.
1:05 pm A white-red-white flag is displayed at the highest point in Glubokoe.
1:30 pm Police have entered the premises of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts.
1:40 pm Varvara Grinyuk, a student recently expelled from the Hrodna State University, has been detained. She was standing at the main entrance of the University with the slogan “Students are expelled from HrSU by scalpel”.
1:47 pm Riot police have been patrolling the area near MSLU since 1 pm, but not entering the University.
1:51 pm BNTU students are taking part in asolidarity action in support of the expelled students.
1:54 pm Olga Avdeichyuk, a legal advisor at Brest State Technical University, has left her post. She believes the student expulsion orders are illegal and she did not want to sign them.
1:56 pm Communication with Anastasia Sorokina, vice-president of the International Chess Federation and head of the Belarusian Chess Federation, has been lost after she was summoned to the police station. Sorokina is one of the representatives of the sports community who signed a letter demanding fair elections.
2:01 pm The Bolshoi Theater press office has announced the cancellation of plays from 29 October to 20 November “due to the epidemiological situation”. No information has been given in the press release about the dismissal of the leading artists.
2:12 pm Everybody is evacuated from the shopping centre “Tivali”, Minsk. It is not clear what has happened yet.
2:14 pm Natalia Dulina, the assistant professor of the Italian language department of MSLU, has been dismissed from her post. She was supporting the strike which took place at the University. Natalia Dulina is the best Italian language specialist in the country.
2:15 pm BSTU students have met with the University’s management.
2:18 pm Employees of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Mental Health in Novinki took part in an action of solidarity.
2:19 pm BSAA graduates came to support the students.
2:20 pm Yevgeny Suvorov, an employee of the Homel newspaper “Strong News”, has been released from the police. He spent last night in the police station, where he was questioned about the death of Aliaksandr Vikhor, a 25-year-old protester who died in Homel. Suvorov saw the moment when Vikhor was arrested on 9 August.
2:25 pm Natalya Leonova and Valentina Kharitonova, actresses of the Hrodna Drama Theater, have been fired. Last night they joined another five of their colleagues in a strike. Two theater directors were dismissed earlier.
2:27 pm Over 1,200 well-known British people have signed a letter of solidarity with the Belarusian people on strike.
2:34 pm The headmaster of the Minsk Secondary School No. 4 called the senior students for a talk because they sang songs, expressing their solidarity with the protesters. The rest of the students were chanting “Let them go!” near the office.
2:37 pm The security forces took away the head teacher and one more woman from the Minsk Secondary School No. 4. The school pupils have been chanting “Long live Belarus!” earlier in the school.
2:57 pm Andrei Komlin-Yuamatin, an employee of the Minsk Motor Plant who was dismissed after he had joined the strike, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison. Police detained him at his workplace where he was collecting his personal belongings.
2:59 pm A meeting between the students and BSTU administration has ended without any positive outcome.
3:05 pm A university professor from Homel, Natalya Suslova, who has twice served a jail sentence for participating in protests, has now been fired.
3:10 pm Marina Lukashevich, the Dean of the Faculty of Computing Systems and Networks at Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, wrote a resignation letter after refusing to sign an expulsion order for 30 students. 45 university teachers are on strike.
3:17 pm In Pruzhany, a social worker Aliaksei Karimov was fired after he announced he was going on strike.
3:17 pm Histogame company, creators of the game about a strike called “Wir Sind Das Volk,” went on strike themselves and expressed their support for the Belarusian strikers.
3:30 pm A protest in solidarity with the students has begun near the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics.
3:35 pm In Minsk, the traditional march of people with disabilities is starting.
3:52 pm Another three teachers were dismissed from Minsk State Linguistic University: Anna Ablova, Ksenia Katkova, and Yulia Safronova.
3:58 pm Websites of Belarusian National Technological University and Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics are temporarily unavailable.
4:01 pm The Belsat journalist Aliaksandr Sidarevsky was fined for 1350 Belarusian rubles (about $513) for “creating illegal media products.”
4:03 pm In Vitsebsk, a student Zosia Terentyeva was detained after her one-person protest.
4:06 pm The Belarusian State University philology professor and translator of the Harry Potter series into Belarusian, Alyona Piatrovich, has been fired.
4:16 pm Belarusian human rights activists acknowledged the status of political prisoners to Maria Babovich and Denis Grakhanov, who were imprisoned for renewing the inscription “We will not forget” at Aliaksandr Taraikouski’s place of death. They face up to 10 years in prison for “hooliganism” and “deliberate destruction or damage to property.”
4:18 pm The Military Academy professor and author of books on military history Vitaly Chyrvinsky, has been dismissed.
4:19 pm A protest in solidarity with the expelled students has started at the Belarusian State Medical University.
4:27 pm Near the Minsk High School No 4, a man was detained for bearing a placard that stated: “Students, you are incredible, we are proud of you”.
4:39 pm A group of students from Belarusian State Medical University students were trying to start a dialogue with the university administration. They were asked to create an initiative group, which will be able to meet with the administration tomorrow and discuss the situation in the university.
4:57 pm In Vitsebsk, an armored vehicle was shooting on Chernyakhovsky Avenue! It is not clear what it was firing at. Eyewitnesses say there was a playground nearby! People are scared – shooting drills never take place in cities.
5:05 pm Lukashenko announced that foreign university diplomas will no longer be recognized in Belarus.
5:06 pm The first student was expelled from the Belarusian State University, from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. Up until now there had been no reports of expulsions from the country’s top university.
5:14 pm Doctors are holding a protest in solidarity with the expelled and detained students near Minsk Regional Clinical Hospital.
5:19 pm Two more professors at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Vasily Perevoschikov and the doctor of technical science Valery Prytkov, have been dismissed.
5:25 pm ❗️The State Border Committee of Belarus confirmed that the borders with Lithuania and Poland have been closed. The official reason is the coronavirus pandemic. Many Belarusians cannot return home. According to unofficial data, the border with Ukraine is also closed, but there has not been an official confirmation yet.
5:30 pm Hrodna State University students held a protest in solidarity with the detained student. “We really want to show that we are with you,” participants say.
5:40 pm A large rally is taking place on the Belarusian Medical University walls and near the university. A prisoner transporter and riot police have arrived.
5:44 pm People have confirmed that they are not allowed to enter Belarus from Ukraine. So far, there has been no official comment.
5:47 pm The Mahiliou activist Stanislav Pavlikovich was sentenced to 2 years of house arrest with penal labour for insulting a judge.
5:55 pm The Latvian border was also reported to be closed.
6:00 pm What is known about the situation on the border right now:
- Citizens are reporting problems crossing the border, and that they are unable to return to Belarus.
- Border guards are allegedly citing internal documents which entered into force today.
- The State Border Committee has not responded for comments.
- The Customs Committee stated that their officers are continuing to work with those who are on the border.
- No one at Minsk National Airport knows about any restrictions.
- Rail travel is also continuing uninterrupted.
6:10 pm Belsat readers report that buses and cars have been stopped at the Kuzintsa and Bobrovniki border crossings. Cargo is still being allowed in and out. The Polish side confirms this and has asked Belarusian Border Committee for an explanation.
6:13 pm TUT.BY readers report that former presidential candidate Siarhei Cherechen is at the Novaya Guta border crossing on the Ukrainian border. Cherechen is also not being allowed through and is trying to find out why the border is closed.
6:30 pm ❗️Hundreds of Belarusians trying to return home are unable to enter the country. The borders with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine are all closed. Readers have reported this on nearly all Telegram channels. There is no official statement as of yet. Earlier today, Lukashenka had once again stated that he needs to close the borders.
6:46 pm @belsat reports that journalist Viktar Yaroshuk was sentenced to 10 days of jail time. He was tried on 6 October, but only taken to serve the time today.
6:48 pm Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya considers the closure of the borders a sign of the regime’s panic and calls for the continuation of the peaceful protests.
6:50 pm Border guards on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border began to allow citizens of Belarus into the country. The information comes from @euroradio with reference to the message of Siarhei Cherechen.
6:53 pm In Minsk, cafes and restaurants that had supported the 26 October strike are being shut down en masse: the Ministry of Health allegedly found gross sanitary violations in each of them.
The work of Tapas Bar, Post Bar, O’Petit (the same cafe where the glass door was broken by the GUBOPiK chief Nikolai Karpenkov), Brioche, Bistro de Luxe, Pelican, Umami, Svobody, 4 and many others has been suspended until 26 January.
6:57 pm The European Humanities University (EHU) has announced that it is ready to accept students who have faced political repression in Belarus.
7:37 pm ❗️An official explanation of the situation at the border from the Belarussian Border Committee has been given. It is said that the citizens are able to return from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine only by plane.
“In connection with the current epidemic situation in neighboring countries, the Republic of Belarus temporarily restricts entry to its territory through ground checkpoints for certain categories of individuals from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.”
7:57 pm More than 3,000 doctors have signed an open letter in which they have stated their demands: to stop the violence, to release political prisoners and to reinstate all those dismissed/expelled for political reasons in their workplaces and educational institutions.
7:59 pm Nasha Niva says that employees of the Homiel Chemical Plant are offered to go on a business trip to Hrodna to work at “Hrodna Azot.” The owners promise free accommodation. The duration of a business trip is supposed to exceed six months. This publication was tipped off by two employees of the Homiel plant.
Meanwhile, the Azot workers report on the strike of more than a hundred key employees of the factory, including the ones who cannot be replaced.
8:08 pm MinskTrans suspended international bus lines “due to restrictions on entry to the territory of the Republic of Belarus.”
8:25 pm Tonight the “Night of the executed poets” is being held in Kurapaty (near Minsk). A lot of people came to pay respect, including diplomats from Estonia, Great Britain and the USA. The artists hold various performances dedicated to 132 representatives of the Belarusian intelligentsia, who were killed on October 29-30, 1937:
- Nina Bahinskaya, the symbol of the 2020 protest, delivered a speech from the stage. She said that she would go where “where the youth are calling. I see that the youth have begun a new round of Objection. Thanks to the youth!”
- Actors of the Yanka Kupala Theater read out loud the names of those killed on the night of October 29-30, 1937;
- Various cultural figures recited poems by the executed poets;
- The attendees lit lanterns singing the song “Walls” performed by Andrei Khadanovich, the poet who translated the lyrics from Polish.
Kurapaty is a place of mass executions and burials of people repressed by the NKVD in 1937-1940. Lukashenka has never visited this memorial.
9:09 pm Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya held an online call with representatives of factories and enterprises. The representatives of the strike committees confirmed that, despite the repression, the number of those joining the strike is growing and that the effect of the strike will be visible after the New Year. BySol fund spokesman Yaroslav Likhachevsky noted that for all dismissed, the fund will compensate average salaries for three months
9:41 pm Traditional actions of solidarity are taking place throughout the country today. Many of them are dedicated to the memory of victims of Stalinist repressions:
- In Minsk, a lecture was held on the topic “Brief overview of the history of Belarusian national and state symbols.”
- In Orsha, Fanipol, Radashkovichi, Homiel, Bobruisk, Priluki, Minsk, people took part in rallies of solidarity with the strikers.
- In Homiel, near the cross erected in the 1990s, a rally was held in memory of the victims of repression.
- In Molodechno, words of support are conveyed to all strikers
10:53 pm A coalition of the @BYSOL Solidarity Fund, @BY_help campaign and Center of Belarusian Solidarity / Centrum Białoruskiej Solidarności decided to expand their financial support to the students who have been expelled for political reasons.
