When Roman Protasewitsch was taken from the sky in a fighter jet, Sasha Filipenko (36) was sitting in Switzerland. The well-known writer is horrified, although he does not know the activist and journalist personally: Both are Belarusians, fight for democracy – and live in exile. Filipenko currently near Geneva. Safe. While Protasevich faces 15 years imprisonment. Filipenko is clear what this means: “Beasts and sadists will torment him.”
How important is Protasevich for the opposition in Belarus?
Sasha Filipenko: We are not “the opposition”. 97 percent of Belarusians are against the terrorist group that has taken power. Just imagine Geneva was captured by terrorists who control the army and police. Protasevich is just as important as any other Belarusian.
But he was co-founder and editor-in-chief of Nexta, which played an important role in the mass protests following the rigged election last August.
Yes, this is the most popular Telegram channel in the post-Soviet space. But, for example, I haven’t read it.
What does Protasevich’s arrest mean for you and your comrades-in-arms?
The question is what consequences this will have for Lukashenko. That’s something for the Court of Justice in The Hague, where it’s sure to land one day.
Do you think Moscow supported Lukashenko in hijacking the plane?
Six passengers stayed in Minsk and did not fly to Vilnius – four of them are Russians. We have good reasons to believe that Belarusian intelligence is supported by its Russian counterparts from the KGB who are kidnapping and poisoning people around the world.
How should the EU react to the incident?
First and foremost, she should start acting instead of just “showing concern”. The EU must make it clear to Putin that Belarus is not part of Russia, not part of Russia’s sphere of interest. But the EU is afraid of Putin. Every time she has to choose between democracy in the East and her own financial interests, she chooses the latter. Switzerland does the same.
Since the presidential elections in August 2020, Belarus has been increasingly isolated internationally under the dictator Alexander Lukashenko (66). This after the rulers proceeded with ill-treatment and arbitrary arrests against demonstrators. The opposition in Belarus describes the election, in which Lukashenko is said to have won 80 percent of the vote, as a sham election.
Journalists were also victims of Lukashenko’s regime of violence. For example, SRF correspondent Luzia Tschirky (31), who was put in prison on January 31 before a large demonstration against the election result in Minsk. She was only released after the intervention of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
Bitter for hockey fan Lukashenko: On January 18, the country was also deprived of the ice hockey World Cup, which will take place from May 21 to June 6. Belarus was the organizer together with Latvia. But sponsors threatened to withdraw because of the human rights violations. Now the World Cup will only be held in Latvia.
In March 2021, the crash at the Eurovision Song Contest ESC finally followed. The band Galasy ZMesta wanted to compete with a song that indirectly contained propaganda for the Lukashenko regime. The jury excluded the country from the competition. Flavio Razzino
In open letters you attacked the world ice hockey boss René Fasel for his long stuck with the ice hockey world championship in Belarus and the ICRC president Peter Maurer for alleged cooperation with Lukashenko.
Exactly, that’s what I mean. The Belarusian Red Cross was involved in the rigged elections in Belarus and counted the votes. But Maurer, who constantly meets with Lukashenko’s Foreign Minister Makej and is friends with him, just smiles and says there is nothing he can do. 12.6 percent of Belarusians make compulsory contributions to the Red Cross. The Red Cross falsifies elections in Belarus and forces people to pay dues for them.
What do you expect from Switzerland?
Nothing. Switzerland is the only country in Europe that Svetlana Tichanowskaya has not recognized as the winner of the election. During her visit to Switzerland at the beginning of March, she was not received by either the Foreign Minister or the Federal President. Instead, she continues to consider Lukashenko to be the legitimate president, which means that she indirectly supports an insane terrorist. And that’s why I find it so difficult to expect anything from Switzerland. Switzerland is not even in a hurry to rescue its own citizens (the dual citizen Natallia Hersche has been imprisoned since September 2020, editor’s note). She is more concerned about the trains she is selling to Belarus than about her own citizens being held hostage by a dictator.
So no expectations?
Yes, of course: if Switzerland would act, it could do a lot.
Switzerland has already imposed sanctions on Lukashenko and 58 other people around him. What are you thinking of specifically?
It must support all EU and US sanctions – other names must be on the sanctions list. Switzerland has also undertaken to freeze Lukashenko’s assets and report them to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco). It has to ensure this and make it transparent. Belarusian service providers – especially in the IT and transport sector – could be given better access to the Swiss market, most of which come from the private sector. But: Investigate the type of Belarusian investments in Switzerland! Part of it comes from Lukashenko’s “family” and close “friends” and from the shadow economy. In 2020 Belarusian investments in Switzerland were $ 22.9 million.
A lot by Belarusian standards. Is your list of ideas even longer?
Switzerland should propose new elections, which the OSCE will observe. In addition, pressure must be exerted on the World Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to investigate Dzmitry Baskaus (Lukashenko’s confidante and ice hockey head coach, editor’s note) role in the death of Raman Bandarenka (killed opponent of the regime, editor’s note) – the IIHF is doing everything possible to delay the examination. And there are no sanctions against the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, the red-green flag at the Olympic Games should be withdrawn from them.
You and your colleagues also keep an eye on the Swiss banks.
Swiss banks must refuse direct financing and lending to state agencies, state banks and state-owned companies from Belarus. It is crucial to suspend any kind of capital support to the three state banks: Belarusbank, Belagroprombank and the Belarusian Development Bank. Together they control over 60 percent of the country’s wealth and the foreign currency denominated cash flows support the Belarusian regime. Swiss UBS and Credit Suisse clients should not buy bonds issued by the Belarusian government. First, the current political situation in Belarus is unstable, so there may be sudden and unpredictable depreciation of bonds. Second, the money from bonds is used to finance repression.
EU leader Ursula von der Leyen has promised Belarus three billion euros if it becomes democratic. is that a good offer?
It’s like the promise of money for the afterlife. 40,000 Belarusians were in prison. At that moment, people are kidnapped, tortured and killed. It is not clear to me who should benefit from the offer.
Keystone
Sasha Filipenko (36) lives with his family until July in a writer residence of the Jan Michalski Foundation in Montricher VD. From there, the passionate football fan also writes angry letters to European officials. At the end of March, his second novel, “The former son”, about life under the Lukashenko regime, was published in German. Before that, he studied literature in St. Petersburg (Russia) and worked as a journalist, screenwriter and gag writer, among other things.