Prominent opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova has been missing since Monday morning. Her media team and three other opposition members have also disappeared, the local news medium writes Tut.By.
It is unclear what happened to Kolesnikova, but she may have been kidnapped. A witness named Anastasia saw her being picked off the street by masked men in a van in Minsk, said Tut.By.
“Her phone fell out of her hand and one of the men picked it up and jumped into the van before driving off,” the witness said. Anastasia did not dare to film the incident for fear of being arrested.
Kolesnikova is the main surviving opposition figure within Belarus (what we called Belarus until recently). She is one of three female politicians to compete against President Alexander Lukashenko in the August elections.
Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has since moved to Lithuania for security reasons, Veronika Tsepkalo has left for Poland with her family.
Three other colleagues from the opposition coordination council have also disappeared since Kolesnikova’s disappearance, namely Ivan Kravtsov, Maxim Bogretsov and her spokesman Anton Rodnenkov. The latter confirmed Kolesnikova’s kidnapping Tut.By, but disappeared from the radar itself some forty minutes later.
Belarusian police say they have not arrested Kolesnikova, the Russian state news agency said Interfax.
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Maria Kolesnikova (right) with presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (center) and Veronika Tsepkalo on July 30 in Minsk. (Photo: Pro Shots)
Lithuania: ‘Stalinist practices’
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius compared the alleged event to the practices of the secret police in the Soviet Union’s Stalin era and called for her immediate release.
EU leader Josep Borrell condemns the “arrest and kidnapping” of Kolesnikova and her colleagues as “brutal action” and calls it “unacceptable”.
On Sunday, more than 100,000 people demonstrated against President Lukashenko, who they accuse of electoral fraud. Masked security forces arrested 633 people. Pro-government gangs beat up protesters on the way home.
Arbitrary arrests and kidnappings on political grounds in Belarus, including this morning’s brutal actions against Andrei Yahorau, Irina Sukhiy & Maria Kalesnikova, are unacceptable. State authorities must stop intimidating citizens & violating their own laws and int. obligations
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- JosepBorrellF
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Why do we call Belarus Belarus from now on?
- Since independence in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country has been officially called the Republic of Belarus. That name is therefore used in official texts. Belarus does more justice to what the population calls the country itself. Some Belarusians take offense at the name Belarus because of the association with Russia. Previously, we used the established name Belarus, because it is more recognizable to many readers.
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