Svetlana Alexievich Statement, errata

Miscellaneous Belarus-related news

Last remaining member of the Coordinating Council Presidium in Belarus Svetlana Alexievich released a statement on September 9, 2020.

Here’s a quick xlation:

My like-minded friends in the Presidium of the Coordinating Council are no longer there. Everyone is either in jail or expelled. Today they detained the last member, Maksym Znak.

First, they kidnapped the country and now they are kidnapping the best of us. Hundreds of others will replace us. It was not the Coordination Council that revolted. The country revolted. I want to repeat what I always say. We were not preparing a coup. We wanted to prevent a split in our country. We wanted a dialogue to begin in society. Lukashenko says he will not speak to the “street,” which is hundreds of thousands of people who go out every Sunday and every day. This is not a street literally. This is the people.

People go out with their young children because they believe they will win.

I also want to appeal to the Russian intelligentsia, the term we …