New information has emerged about the whereabouts of three members of the Belarusian opposition Coordination Council who disappeared on Sept. 7. But many questions remain about the circumstances of their disappearance.
Two of them, Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov, reportedly arrived in Ukraine on Sept. 8. Belarusian state media have also claimed that Mariya Kolesnikova, one of the opposition leaders, was detained at the border.
Kolesnikova’s whereabouts are currently unknown, according to her office. At press time, Rodnenkov’s phone was unreachable. The Kyiv Post was unable to reach out to Kravtsov.
With the three council members currently incommunicado, it is difficult to state with certainty what actually happened. The limited information available at the moment offers two different narratives.
On Sept. 7, one witness saw Kolesnikova being shoved into a minivan by several men in civilian clothing in the center of Minsk. On the same day, colleagues could not get in touch with Rodnenkov and Kravtsov.
On Sept. 8, Belarusian state media reported that the three tried to cross the border with Ukraine by car in the early morning of Sept. 8. A representative of the Belarusian border guards, Anton Bychkovsky, alleged that Rodnenkov and Kravtsov pushed Kolesnikova out the car as they drove toward Ukraine. She ended up outside of the car and was detained, he said, according to the TUT.BY news website.
The state media also released a video of Kravtsov saying that they decided to leave Belarus for some time.
The second narrative comes from the Ukrainian authorities.
The Ukrainian border guard service confirmed in a statement that the two men had arrived at a border checkpoint in Kyiv Oblast. However, their decision to leave Belarus appears to not have been voluntary.
“It was a forcible expulsion from their home country aimed at discrediting the Belarusian opposition,” Deputy Interior Minister of Ukraine Anton Heraschenko wrote on Facebook.
Kolesnikova, he continued vaguely, could not be forced out because “she carried out an act that made it impossible for her to cross the border.” Allegedly, she tore her passport apart in order to stay in Belarus.
Kolesnikova was the only remaining opposition leader in Minsk. She and two other women, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo, led the movement against dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Opposition activists believe Tikhanovskaya won the Aug. 9 presidential election, but the results were rigged in favor of Lukashenko, who has been Belarus’ president for 26 years. The election results sparked massive anti-government protests and nationwide strikes at state enterprises that have continued, on and off, for four consecutive weeks.
Tikhanovskaya has been forced to flee for Lithuania. Tsepkalo is in Poland.
Kolesnikova didn’t plan to leave the country despite mounting pressure, according to another member of the Coordination Council, Maksim Znak.
Lawyer Znak and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich are the only two members of the 7-person presidium of the Coordination Council, an opposition group created to resolve the political crisis in Belarus and ensure a transition of power, who remain free.
Tractor factory worker Sergey Dylevsky and lawyer Liliya Vlasova have been detained. Former government official Pavel Latushko and Tikhanovskaya’s authorized representative Olga Kovalkova left for Poland.
