“Belarusians of the world” ask their leaders unpleasant questions
Over the weekend, Warsaw hosted the IV Conference of Belarusians and Belarusians of the World with the participation of more than 200 people from 16 countries. The participants not only made suggestions about the actions of the opposition, but also asked questions. Pavel Latushko, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s deputy, was asked if he wanted to resign after the scandal with his protege, ex-speaker of the Coordinating Council Angelika Melnikova. The investigators cite evidence that she was recruited by the special services of Belarus long ago.
The meeting of the Belarus–EU advisory group will be held on June 11 in Brussels. The Joint Transitional Cabinet (MIC) of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya met on Sunday to work out a common position that is supposed to be presented there.
The main topics to be discussed are assistance to prisoners, mobility and visa opportunities for Belarusians, support for independent media, as well as the role of Belarus in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
Representatives of the defense industry plan to insist that the policy towards Belarus should be based on the mandatory participation of representatives of the opposition. And in order to demonstrate that it is, if not a united, but at least a community seeking some common position, the IV Conference of Belarusians and Belarusians of the World was held in Warsaw over the weekend. It was attended by more than 200 people from 16 countries. Adviser to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Franak Vyachorka reported on its results in the social networks of the opposition.
The politician said: “We have collected ideas – more than 100 proposals from different countries – and will try to combine them into a single, common plan: best practices, worst practices, what works, what doesn’t. We will send these documents to the conference participants so that communities, initiatives, and organizations can further implement them.”
At the same time, Vyachorka acknowledged that the mood of the conference participants was far from unconditional loyalty to its organizers. However, Tikhanovskaya’s adviser decided to present this situation as a kind of triumph of democracy and pluralism of opinions.
“I really liked that people were active: there were arguments, there were quarrels, provocative questions – who stole the money, when we would win, when we would return home. Of course, I would like to have answers to all these questions, but it depends on everyone. I think that when we get together, we think together, we look for solutions, we change some strategy – it helps us to find the answer to the question of when we will return home,” Vyachorka said.
One of the most provocative questions, meanwhile, was addressed to Pavel Latushko, the second person in the Joint Transitional Cabinet after Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who also heads his own organization, People’s Anti–Crisis Management.
A delegate of the Coordinating Council (CC), a well-known blogger Sergey Petrukhin, on behalf of “people on the Internet”, asked if Latushko was feeling a sense of shame over the disappearance of his nominee, ex-speaker of the CC Angelika Melnikova. What does it feel like for him to show himself in public? And, developing his thought, I asked: why hasn’t he resigned yet?
Latushko responded indignantly: “What should I be ashamed of? For the fact that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus is fighting with us? Because the KGB is acting against us? For the fact that I received the 151st letter this week stating that “a resolution has been passed on your physical liquidation”?”
The politician stated that, on the contrary, he considers such a difficult personal situation to be an indicator that the opposition is strong and raises concerns among the authorities.
Meanwhile, the scandal surrounding the disappearance of Angelika Melnikova is looking more and more like an action-packed TV series. In the first episodes, at the end of March, when her disappearance was discovered, it resembled a crime drama. Later, when it became clear that an impressive sum belonging to the Coordinating Council had disappeared with it, elements of an adventurous detective story appeared. And finally, at the end of last week, the story began to take on the features of a spy thriller.
An international team of investigators presented evidence that no later than August-September 2023, Melnikova began a romantic relationship with an employee of the Belarusian special services. It is assumed that at the initial stage she did not know who she was dealing with.
Opposition publications cite the testimony of Melnikova’s friend, who claims that in January 2024, after a trip to Sri Lanka, she told her about her engagement to a man “who lives in Belarus and cannot come to EU countries, so they meet in exotic countries.”
Later, according to investigators, Melnikova, who was actually one of the leading opposition figures, was turned over. And her disappearance not only led to financial losses, not only caused an image blow, but also created a real threat to a still difficult-to-identify circle of people.
The former chairman of the Coordinating Council had access to the lists of active Belarusian oppositionists abroad, as well as sponsors of their activities. It is claimed that it is quite possible to say that Melnikova had been passing information to her lover and recruiter for at least a year.
The investigators promise new episodes of this fascinating story soon. So far, they have tracked Melnikova’s next route: Warsaw–London–Sri Lanka-Dubai, but they promise that they will name the final destination of this intricate voyage in the near future.