Maria Kolesnikova, an opposition coordination council, was abducted by masked men and was driven away from Minsk on Monday morning.
Maria Kolesnikova is the last of the three female politicians left in Belarus who joined forces to challenge Alexander Lukashenko for the presidential elections.
She has been a courageous and vocal critic of Lukashenko and played a vital part in the mass risings and strikes by protesters to restore democracy, which has been going on for the last few weeks in Belarus against him.
True or not?
The police in Minsk completely denied the alleged abduction, despite an eye-witness named Anastasia, saw the masked men push Kolesnikova into a van.
However, authorities have confirmed that she is now in jail, right after the masked men threatened to kill her. The claim says that she has violated national security and is considered a threat to the public.
The witness, Anastasia, also claims that Kolesnikova’s phone dropped during the struggle, and one of the masked men picked it up hurriedly, before jumping into the van and speeding off.
Two activists who worked closely with Kolesnikova, by the names of Anton Rodnenkov and Ivan Kravtsov, also seemed to disappear right after the abduction.
It is believed that the masked men are explicitly targeting the members of the said coordination council.
The claim tells about Lukashenko rigged his re-election and has previously been involved in corrupt activities, but he denies all those claims.
Instead, the president put on allegations on foreign powers claiming that “people” wanted to topple him through these movements. Hence in return, he has responded with harsh detention, including torture and battery, as exposed by those who experienced the brutality.
He has retained the support of Putin, who reportedly told him that he would send in police support to Belarus if necessary.
Here’s what the people have to say
Furthermore, thousands of people have been continuously protesting across the country, demanding that the current president should step down. As of now, more than 660 people have been detained.
Sources report that Kolesnikova was driven off to the border of Ukraine, where she was detained right after she destroyed her passport. She wanted to avoid leaving the territory of Belarus, thus the move.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius suggested that the behavior of the government is similar to that of Stalin’s KGB. “They want to eliminate the problem instead of dealing with it head on, and that is exactly what the KGB did,” he said.
The situation is worsening every single day in Belarus with Lukashenko’s presidential tenure lengths.
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