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Belarus: a 73-year-old against Lukashenko's special police

2020-09-19T17:26:10.364Z


With her white, red and white flag, Nina Baginskaja has become a symbol of resistance in Belarus. She was arrested on Saturday during a protest march. Before the demo she spoke to SPIEGEL.


Icon: enlarge

Nina Baginskaja defends herself against police officers in Minsk: "I wanted at least to send a small signal against these bandits"

Photo: 

Dmitri Lovetsky / AP

On this Saturday, the Lukashenko regime did not stop at a 73-year-old woman: During a protest march by women in Minsk, security forces arrested Nina Baginskaja, a veteran of the protest movement who had previously been able to evade access.

"I'm going for a walk," she recently replied to the officers of the notorious Omon special forces who tried to stop her, and went on.

A scene that was quickly shared umpteen times on social media.

Baginskaya has become a symbol of the protests against the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

With its white-red-white flag, which was the state flag of the independent Belarus for a short time after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has regularly roamed the center in recent weeks.

A few days before her arrest, she spoke to SPIEGEL.

To person

Icon: enlarge Photo: Valery Sharifulin / imago images / ITAR-TASS

Nina Baginskaja

, 73 years old, was born in Minsk.

Geologist and activist.

Went to protest for the first time in 1988, at that time it was a rally in memory of the victims of Stalin's repression in Kuropaty near Minsk.

Later she demonstrated against the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

She was imprisoned twice but was released a few days later and was sentenced to numerous fines.

She has a son and a daughter.

SPIEGEL:

You have been taking to the streets every day for six weeks.

What is it that drives you?

Nina Baginskaja:

Lukashenko cheated us of our choice.

It robs us of freedom and happiness.

This coward has to go.

He sends his security guards, they are all bandits, many no longer wear badges.

They beat us, dragging girls and women into prison trucks.

It is our right to demonstrate against the fake results, we do it peacefully.

SPIEGEL:

You have already stood in the way so that prison vans couldn't drive away ...

Baginskaja:

... I demonstrated in front of it so that the van could not leave.

It was full of young women and girls who had arrested our so-called protectors.

I wanted at least to send a small sign against these bandits, of course at some point they grabbed my arms and carried me away.

SPIEGEL:

You've also kicked officers from the Omon special forces in the shins, aren't you afraid?

Baginskaya:

I was walking in front of the church with my flag when one of the senior Omon officials asked me to remove my flag.

'Why, with what right', I replied, 'where is it written that I am not allowed to do that?

That is our national pride. '

Then he snatched the flag from me and stole my property.

How should I react to that, say thank you?

I think that's a normal response from someone who is attacked.

SPIEGEL

: But aren't you afraid, you are, excuse me, no longer the youngest?

Baginskaja:

No, from what?

That they lock me up?

I am convinced that they will not put an old woman in jail.

They are not stupid, they know that there would only be trouble if I then died there.

SPIEGEL:

Many of the demonstrators call you a heroine because of your courage and take photos with you.

"How can you not resist this regime, which is trampling on us, our Belarusian language and national symbols?"

Baginskaya:

Fame comes and goes.

How can one not resist this regime that is trampling on us, our Belarusian language and national symbols?

This is my state, my culture, I know what justice is.

SPIEGEL:

Lukashenko is not ready to leave.

If you had the opportunity to speak to him, what would you say to him?

Baginskaja:

That he is a president who gives his people neither happiness nor freedom, has demoted them to slaves, so to speak.

He has to resign.

He is guilty of this, and he has to answer for it, including in court.

SPIEGEL:

What's next?

Baginskaya:

I'm not submitting.

I will protest no matter how many continue.

We have to keep applying pressure, also because Vladimir Putin is helping Lukashenko.

After Ukraine, the Russian president does not want to lose Belarus as well, for him it is an important outpost in Europe.

We have to organize strikes on a large scale, in the state-owned companies, in the airports, not pay taxes, so resist.

If thousands go to work and stay at home, Lukashenko's security forces have no chance.

SPIEGEL:

But it will all take time. How much strength do you still have?

Baginskaja:

I still have some strength.

Of course I'm not one hundred percent healthy at my age, but I still have ten or twenty years, my father turned 90, my mother 87, other relatives have also turned old.

SPIEGEL:

You can hear children in the background - are they your grandchildren?

Baginskaja:

My son is here, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

They all support me and even come with me from time to time.

The other day my great-grandson was there on a march, he is five years old, already knows the slogans, and now shouts at home: 'Long live Belarus'.

SPIEGEL:

You have been taking to the streets against Lukashenko for years ...

Baginskaja:

… yes, when Belarus became independent after the end of the Soviet Union, I was against the idea that power is so concentrated with the president.

This allows the state to develop into a dictatorship.

I am for a parliamentary republic.

We didn't make it then.

Our youth are now fighting for this.

And I help with it.

We must unite and fight against oppression.

"We have to unite and fight against oppression."

I saw the injured in the hospital with my own eyes on the evening of the election, young men with wounds on their knees, they had been hit by rubber bullets from the emergency services.

I was in the clinic because the Omon police pushed me to the ground and took my flag away.

Not much has happened to me, but how are men ever going to walk again with these injuries?

That stays for life.

SPIEGEL:

You have been fined countless times, how many are there?

Baginskaja:

I stopped counting at the equivalent of 15,000 euros.

I can never pay that, I'd have to live a long, long time for that.

SPIEGEL:

The state has kept part of your pension for years.

Baginskaja: At

first it was 20 percent, now it's half: 200 Belarusian rubles (around 65 euros).

But I don't need much, I also have apples and berries from the garden, my family supports me, I don't go hungry.

There are more good people than bad in our country, there is solidarity.

You help each other, including me.

Somebody just gave me a bar of chocolate.

Icon: The mirror

Collaboration: Tatiana Chukhlomina

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-19

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