Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the informal leader of the Belarusian opposition, is expected to arrive in Warsaw tomorrow. Tsikhanouskaya will meet the Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki and receive a special award during the Economic Forum in Karpacz. In the meantime, independent Belarusian media report that the regime’s security services are attempting to force the leading members of opposition out of the country. Such an attempt was made against Maria Kolesnikova, who was kidnapped by masked assailants on Monday. According to unofficial sources, she is currently being held at a military facility in the Gomel region.
The information on the current location of Belarusian opposition activists was first provided by the Belarusian border guard. This stated that the border was also crossed by Maria Kolesnikova, however, this information was disproved by the Ukrainian border guard. Under an hour later, the Belarusian press agency Bielta said that the missing members of the opposition had escaped abroad, but Kolesnikova had failed to do so as she had been stopped at the border. According to an independent news website tut.by, the missing leader of opposition had been stopped after border control, between the checkpoint and the Belarusian border. She was pushed out of a fast-driving car and then caught by the Belarusian border guard. The deputy minister of interior of Ukraine, Anton Harashchenko, believes that the operation of deporting the leaders of the opposition is aimed at finally discrediting the protesters and putting an end to the demonstrations which have been taking place across the country. The Kremlin also commented on the events which took place at the Belarusian border, stating that the Coordinating Council is an illegal body which should not be negotiated with. The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, added that he does not believe that there are any political prisoners in Belarus.