This place here is the border between Russia and Belarus
I have just arrived in Russia.
And these three and a half days have been the toughest days in my life
which were related to my job.
Here I am walking completely without my shoe laces.
Now I know that this is a mandatory procedure
before you are placed into a jail cell, and to be honest:
 
We all can see the terror which is happening
during the protests: those rubber bullets —
without a doubt it's absolutely horrendous.
But what is happening to the guys who get caught during the protests
it is just ten times worse!
I have seen it and experienced it firsthand
This video is about…
I dunno, about that craziness
which is absolutely unreal
and about things I could have never imagined happening
not only in Belarus,
a country I truly love and always with joy visit for some potato pancakes,
I couldn't have even imagined that this can happen in the 21st century,
when there is no inquisition, no cannibalism…
It's just… I know you don't like when I swear
But it was a total mindfuck.
3 days earlier
Time is 5 or 6 am, to be honest I am a bit lost in time
and I am going on that exact day when
in Belarus, in Minsk
almost all of the russian journalists have got detained, beaten and taken away in an unknown direction
I am talking about those journalists that were working there
For a long time there had been not a single snippet of information on their whereabouts
Now many of them have been deported from the country
And now an even bigger craziness is happening there
In short, we are going to see how far I will be able to get.
When you get into the city, you get the impression that the beloved Minsk is as beautiful as usual.
It's a nice day out, the sun is shining
In fact, in the daytime the city absolutely does not look, you know,  destroyed or damaged, no not at all
Given that the city is technically paralyzed
I mean, I have worked in a whole lot of countries covering protests there
And I have never seen anything like this
I mean, the country is paralyzed and for a third day in a row it has been existing without internet
That is, it is not that you can't jump on Whatsapp,
it is that there is no connection
at hotels, banks, transportation companies
It is impossible to get any tickets
 
It is impossible to order a delivery
It is craziness. You can't do absolutely anything on the internet
It is the end of the work day. You are going down to the subway
but people are all walking the other way
Subway is not working anymore?
*the metro will be closed until some end of government order*
At 6 pm the subway was shut
till some unknown date. The policeman is saying that it's until some government instruction
You think, nevermind
Revolts in Minsk at that moment had been going for 2 days already
I did not attach much importance to this and continued on my way
It was 6:15 pm. People were walking and there weren't any demonstrations yet
 
Do you see a man in black that suddenly began to walk in my direction?
These were the last seconds when I thought that I was in Belarus
which I knew and liked
70 hours later
I have just left the prison. I don't know if I am being watched now
Truth be told, I am very scared to say anything on camera because these have been...
the way people here are being brutalized
I have never seen anything like this in my life
I will not film anything here anymore until I leave the country
 
It was about a 10 minute (1 kilometre)  walk from the hotel to the store
I was heading back already
I was about a hundred meters from the hotel
and a riot policeman comes up to me
he has appeared simply out of nowhere
He was standing next to a tree, i dunno
it wasn't an ambush or anything like that
he wanted to search my backpack
I opened my backpack, and he saw a camera inside
This one. It is rather big
 
He went like Sooo
Then he asked me to show him my passport. I showed him my Russian passport
And he said that now it was clear to him
 
I didn't even had the foggiest idea of what it was that was clear to him
 
he leads me to his other senior colleagues and they recognize me as a YouTuber right at that moment
even though I was wearing sunglasses
they wondered whether it was me who travelled to Venezuela and North Korea
 
I told them that I was very pleased they knew me
 
and it struck them that I might have come here to film too
So they put two and two together
They go like I see
Then they asked me to follow them
into their police van
 
they told me that
i shouldn't get the wrong idea, everything was going to be ok
that i wasn't a protester, I didn't blow up anybody
and that everything is going to be alright with me
that they would even put out a word so that I would be treated well
and I am being led to the police van
and there I see riot police, Belorussian riot police
You will see what this is
They start pointing at my two phones and a Go Pro
and right in front of this intelligent man
I am being grabbed by the collar and
 
thrown into the van head first
I am putting my hands up and tell them: 'Guys,
Your are the Belorussian democratic Republic
right?'
'I abide by all of your rules. If it is not allowed, it is not allowed'
And they take me into a one-person cell
or i dunno
some 30 by 30 cm space
you know
there is this locker in fitness clubs
where you hang up your towels
so this space is almost as small as this locker
So in I go and it hits me: 'Did you know, guys, that
such spaces can accommodate up to 4 persons, 4 fucking persons?
2 on the bench
and we are being taken somewhere and it is baking hot
I'm thinking how hot it is
i'm  suffering as hell and probably everything will be over soon
it was nothing! It was probably the best moment
of my last 4 days at that point
And then the amount of insanity starts growing exponentially
once every hour you get worse and worse
each new location you are being taken to
it is getting worse for you there
at that point I obviously couldn't film anything
because they took away my camera, my phone, everything
I hadn't had access to them for a long time
but I really want to get across
the atmosphere of what was happening to us there. I'm going to show this
So this fence here. Obviously it has nothing to do with what was going down
But the way people were treated there, I have this on my leg
it's a small reminder of what happened
Look at the cross pattern
It's the same pattern as on the bottom of the shoe of one of the riot policemen
who left this 'nice' mark on me
but truth be told it's nothing in comparison to what they were doing to others
I can consider myself lucky
I was also covering my face with my arms. What they were doing to others - I was merely patted gently in comparison
So they take us to some place and make us change cars
and this was a blood terrifying moment
because the riot police
consider this moment of changing cars as something
something awesome
So our car arrives
This guy opens the door
and there is already a corridor of riot policeman standing there on the left and on the right
they stand within a metre of each other and they all have a baton in their hands
and they're all waiting for this moment, they're all so excited about it!
Just like this guy
Then he goes like: "Attention..
I present you.. a BLOGGER!"
and then he goes like "Let's gooooo, the door is opening!
He is shouting "Faster!" but you're already walking fast
but he's insisting you must go faster
and hits your bottom with a baton
and everyone hits you
So they like
to leave a mark on you. I've met many guys (fast-forwarding a bit) at riot stations
and everyone out of the 50 guys that were there
had exactly the same abrasion right here on the neck
because every time they were asked to introduce themselves while lying down
in a very similar fashion
probably even thinking to himself that it's beautiful
hit them all here to the left and to the right along the spine
leaving a mark there
And you cannot cover your face, because your hands are tied behind your back
So everything comes down to luck
and you are beaten for the first time on a way to the police bus,
then for a long while you are being transported in this bus
where you are not allowed to sit down at all,
but there are benches in there, so in theory you are supposed to sit on them,
but don't you dare to try it!
I did, once, and immediately BAM,
-"Who the hell allowed you to sit down??!!"
So you are standing, there with
a bunch of other people, all packed in like sardines,
and driver is driving purposely  through every bump .
He wasn't even trying to slow down before speed bump. No, not at all.
Neither before turns. So only by pushing your head to the ceiling
you we're able to keep you balance. Only by  pushing as hard as possible.
so you hold yourself like this
then you experience bumps and get hurt everywhere
and don't you even try sitting down - they've got CCTV!
of course he won't be looking at it every second
but don't you even try sitting down, it'll end in badly
It was very rough when they were making us lie on a ground
face down looking at grass
it was very rough
they're kind of playing with you
you come out of a bus and few of them stand there
they hit you hop-hop and pass you around like a football
from all sides
and then again start shouting "you motherf**ker, you're not lying down the right way!"
Like it's somehow your fault they're beating you now,
cause you're not doing it the right way
Instead of just explaining everyone how they want them to lay down exactly
- lie down and keep your legs straight.
So people don't know this and get shouted at
And they shout on purpose to put pressure on you and scare you
hence you feel like a piece of sh*t and they of course remind of you that
"You're piece of sh*t, you're nobody!"
It's a mental humiliation
They make you feel like you're nobody in this world
So what happened next
is that they placed the 50 of us on the ground facing the ground. Like this, facing down.
If you turn your head on to one side, then it's quite ok. And because of that you're not allowed to lie like this.
you have to lie down like this
but your nose will get in the way
if you relax you won't be able to breathe
That's why you have to be in a constant tension
one option is to lie down like this, but it isn't allowed either
because you can see what's happening in front of you with your eyes
so you have to lie down like this and keep your neck hard
removing the pressure from your nose
So you press against your forehead
and keep your neck hard to create a breathing space for your nose
otherwise you won't be able to breathe
It's very hard to keep this position. It's a struggle
And they also come around and ask you questions
Like your name, your work, etc
So you think to yourself that they'll put this information together
and will do something further with it
but nothing happens
you lie down like this for 1 2, 3 hours..
they put us down like this at 8pm
and it's now 10pm, then 11pm, 1am, 2am
but we're still in the same position and absolutely nothing happens
the ground is colder now and so is the outside
the nights are very cold now and windy
But these people were taken during the day when it was warm
and many of them were wearing shorts and t-shirts
so it's 3am and it's freezing
you're on top of this icy grass
and you go like
There was one guy there. He was walking to see his girlfriend
A riot policeman comes up to him and asks to see his phone
and finds couple of screenshots from these Telegram accounts
and goes like 'Uh-huh, I see, let me check the backpack'
He proceeds to check his backpack and finds a keyring
This keyring has the symbol of this new movement
which is against Lukashenko, for the most part
He becomes angry with "What a motherf**ker!!"
takes this keyring and presses it against his cheek
and hits it hard with his knee
and it's not just his bare knee, they all wear iron knee protectors
and this knee protector goes to his face right here
Arghhhh
Some of the riot policemen were so wild -
they used sharpies to put marks on people to number them
and wrote down numbers on people's legs
for example, number 1 and the street name where you were taken from
So this one dude was wearing pants but they weren't bothered by this
they cut his pants and wrote down numbers over his legs
so almost everyone ended up with cut pants, it's crazy
There was one guy who had a paper cutter in his bag
So they went crazy like "Motherf**ker, you wanted to kill us!!"
So one of them took this paper cutter
and cut out a square on the back of this guy's bottom
right on his ass
so for the rest of the days this dude ended up walking with this hole on his ass
Holes on ass areas were actually quite popular
One other guy, he didn't want to reveal his iPhone passcode
He would't give up the digits, quite stubbornly actually
At first they were just beating him
but then they threw him into the riot car
put a condom on one of the batons
and went ahead with..
cutting a hole in his pants
and reached his buttcheeks
They didn't put it inside him right away
but they reached the buttcheeks first and...
and the guy ended up talking. Another guy had this long hair
that long
he had it in a tail
So when he was taken the riot police got soooo excited
Wooow this dude has long hair!!!
So they made him chew his hairband
Yeah the hairband and the attached bracelet to it. So he chewed and chewed
I was really impressed by this guy called Ivan
25 year old programmer
Which means he earns well
much more than many others
and there were actually many others high earners
He had a younger brother with him, younger by 2 years
They were just chilling out in a cafe eating pizza
When they started getting up after finishing their meal
his brother was grabbed and taken over the road
and his older brother Ivan was seeing this and realising that he couldn't leave him
so Ivan follows his brother
What happened next is we were taken to a remand prison (rus. SIZO)
we were split into different cells
there were over 1000 of us
and this one guy there was beaten SO bad
I thought he was going to die there on the spot
because all of the sounds and screams like
 
and they get turned on by people screaming
so they end up beating you harder
if you're ever in this situation, keep quiet
don't make a sound
they wont' be inspired to continue beating you
but this poor guy
I dunno may be some bad word slipped from his tongue, or he called them a "bitch" I'm not really sure, but he was just getting  a brutal beating for some reason
and he wasn't just hit in one specific area, but was being hit all over his body
he was taken to many other spots and beaten
and then was forced to go to another spot and while he was walking .. I don't know how he was really walking.. probably crawling or something  knees
We only heard it all..All these graphic scenes that I'm describing are just based on what we heard
because you just stare at the fence throughout the whole time
anyways, as he was just continuing to crawl, they kept hitting him and he was like "ugh ugh"
just coughing
he was screaming and they were forcing him to yell "I Love OMON [the riot force]"
they were just forcing him to yell that so that all of us could hear it
"Yell, I Love OMON "
and he yelled "I Love Omon", they hit him  and told him "LOUDER! LOUDER!"
He was just yelling from the top of his lungs, probably ripped his vocal cords
Yell it out louder, yell it out louder "I love Omon"
they are just savages, savages!
and then at some moment he abruptly stopped yelling it, and it was obvious that something happened to him
and Ivan (his brother) heard all of it, and said
I'm 90% sure that it was my brother yelling
and can you imagine what he felt like?
he was sitting next to me and hearing how they were killing his brother
and he couldn't do anything
he was just sitting and had tears in his eyes
Other guys more or less came back to their senses by now as our hands were untied by then inside the cells
so we could chat to each other and get some of our senses back
but he (Ivan) is just sitting and it's clear he's not really present
he's listening to everything and is clearly shocked
and trying to understand as you can't really make out the voices
so I ask him: "How do you know it's him?"
He replies: "I can hear his tone of voice
and how he is gasping for air
and the words he is using
so it's likely him"
At some point the guy that was being punished
stopped screaming. Something must have happened
So they go like "What's up with that?"
"We got him in the crotch, in his crotch"
So they shout at him: "Take it off!"
So he takes it off
And they say something along the lines of
"Yeah there is a problem
now you'll run on single engine.."
So it looks like they beat off one of his testicles
At 3am they were making us run along the corridor
making fun of prisoners
"You do it all wrong, try again" - they said
I saw this guy who was covering his head
so they just broke his hand
it was all swollen, the finger bones were deformed
they broke his hand, they shattered it
And this other person had his face broken
almost to the meat and bone
his nose like this
And many people were covered with not just bruises
but I don't know what else at this stage
It's crazy, I've never seen anything like this in my life
Nikolay Bondarik is from St Petersburg
We met in one of the corridors
We left Belarus on the same car
It was crazy when they put us next to this one wall
and we were standing there for the entire day
with our hands behind our backs. They took around 4 people to the hospital
One man started getting a stroke
It just so happened that my father had one in the past
so I know the symptoms
His face went to one side
and he started talking like those who had a stroke
You won't confuse it with anything else
It's impossible to confuse this with something else. His arm became numb
Then he started to wheeze / hiss
and then it became clear to me that he had all the signs of a stroke
- So you saw it yourself?
- Yes I saw all of it, I turned my head back like this
His face was contorted
His movements were paralysed
and he fell. They came up to beat him more at first
then they realised he wasn't faking it
I started shouting: "What are you doing? He is dying!"
He's having a stroke, he needs to go to the hospital ASAP. He'll die within 3 hrs if you don't take him
- There were others that had it bad too right?
- Yes! One person warned right away that he had cancer
that he's on therapy and needs to take his medicine
twice per day
with a drink and a meal
but they started kicking him with "you're lying"
later they kind of gave him something
some piece of bread and some water
He took all
Still at some point he started having convulsions and vomiting
- Probably the pill didn't get absorbed
- Probably, since without food. Yes, yes yes
So he was taken to the hospital
and I saw all of that. I witnessed it
And I remember this one guy in particular. Misha I think
He is a local dentist. From Minsk
Intelligent young man, around 30
He was standing and talking, talking,
but then suddenly stopped
And I thought that he probably got tired of talking
I see how he is falling back like this
and then you hear this sound
back of the head hitting concrete
He was diabetic, he had to eat something sweet
 
Later he felt a little better - they gave him something
- Oh they were shouting "Who has any sugar?"
- Yes, yes, yes, they brought him sugar
and something to drink
It didn't really help much
And later he was sitting down
and lying down a lot
So they had to call an ambulance for him
They were scared that a person would die right there
and that this would cause them some problems
- Yes so they were conscious of it
- Yes, about dying right here
- Good point
- When they see that someone's about to die in front of them
they go like "oh let's do something, take him away so he dies over there, not here"
- Yes, yes
because they'll have to write reports of what happened
you can't explain it away that easily
I never thought that holding your arms behind your back
is such a hard task
In your normal day, you'd just put it behind your back like this sometimes without further thoughts
But it turns out
if you stand like this for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3
and we stood like this for I don't know 19 hours straight
 
It's super crazy
and also they don't use normal handcuffs
they use this kind of plastic clamps instead
 
and they put it on your really tight
it happens like this
your palms must face outward
 
So you don't get any chance to escape
 
They tighten them like that. It was super tight at first so our hands started going numb soon afterwards
And only later if you managed to find..
Oh yes, that's how it was
Yes, that's how it was at first. So crazy
And only if you manage to plea someone with "Please Mr policeman, can you loosen it up a bit?"
There were some who did, you could find some like that
I thank them for that
But for the most part it's so crazy to stand like this
 
Actually most of the pain comes not from your numb hands
you can rub them a bit, yes it's painful and unpleasant but
all the crazy pain takes place right here in your shoulders
at some point like 2-3 hours later they start hurting so badly
as it's not a normal position for your arms
and to have your shoulders back like that
so your shoulders literally fall out of their joints
the pain is unreal
So you try to bring back your joint to some sort of normal position a little bit
You lift up your arm like that. The pressure on your hand increases
because when you stand like this for atleast a few seconds
you can really feel the relief
same thing with the other hand
I will spend some time like this on purpose, to recall all of the feelings
because the feeling you get when they finally remove these handcuffs, it's really something special. I'll share it
They shovelled us in to this yard because the prison was very crowded
all of the cells were full
so for the night they put us all in to this little yard, 5x5 metres
70 people in that small space
So we were doing
were doing this thing I called
The Dance of the Penguins
People were bundling up together and moving like this. Around 20 people cuddling
to warm themselves up
then they would switch, exactly like penguins
Yes, and we've counted.
There were 130 people
in 1 cell entire night. Actually more than 1 night
- It's not a cell, it's a yard.
- Yes, it's like a little yard
We've measured it. We had a lot of time on our hands
It was a 33 m² space
Can you imagine, divide 130 people by this
It comes up to 4 people per 1 m²
So 4 people, like this and then another 2 on top of that
You're really like inside of a rush hour bus all the time
These guys were riding inside the police van
and suddenly one elderly man was thrown into the van
I don't know, probably over 60 years old
and he was drunk, I don't know maybe he was a bum. I am not sure
 
and one of them goes like "Oh, let's test the shield on him!"
the second one is like "Let's do it!"
and they take this shield (it was the one that administers electric shock)
and smash this man
Total trash
Women get beaten too
Yes I've heard how they were beating women at night
It was truly horrible.
And I've actually heard her screaming
"No! You can't act like that with me! You can't do this to me!"
and he was like: "Why do you think I can't do this to you?"
"You're one of the agitators. You're a provoker / ringleader"
 
So I will treat you like everybody else
So yes, women were beaten up.
Actually now you can be taken from your car
Many guys were taken like this when they were just riding taxis
So they were just riding in a taxi
and usually it happens in the evening when it is getting dark
in areas around the protests
so this kind of trash happens close to such areas
How does it happen exactly? The riot police run towards the car
and smash its windows
they drag you out, the driver, everybody.
they put you against the window or wherever else
so they don't ask you any questions
 
At some point at night, especially towards morning
I started to feel like
all of the screams
are turning into some sort of soundtrack
You are constantly hearing how someone is being beaten up
- More or less
You get half an hour break
somewhere here and there
- Well I don't really remember many breaks
because new detainees kept arriving all the time
and they were kicked and beaten up
they were all screaming like as if one person..
- Oh that night batch was a big one
- Yes, very big one
- Have you heard that guy
the one that they made scream "I love OMON?"
- Yes, yes I remember, I love OMON
- He was beaten up SO badly
- Not with batons at this stage
He was either thrown against the wall very hard
or kicked. There is this saying
'Beat to death'
Last night I realised what it meant
The person is howling like an animal
and he is beaten with "B*tch, shout I love OMON louder! Louder!"
and he screams like a wounded animal
at its last breath
It was really like a
representation
of Hell on Earth
The key challenge of standing next to this fence is that it's cold
actually
there were some policemen that
showed understanding
they asked us if we had any warm clothes
and that if we do, they'd take it out of our bags and bring it to us
I was given this jacket top
but there were guys next to me that had nothing
they only had shorts and sleeveless tops on them
since they were taken during the day
So at 4-5am it's like this
at 4-5am it's quite cold plus you have the wind
so everyone
are standing like this
just like this. At first we stood far away from each other
At first we were asking each other's permissions
like "Can I please press against you?". When you press against another person
you feel their body heat
and it really keeps you warm
It really makes a difference. Sure, not completely but at least some
 
So at first we would ask each other's permission
But later, after the 2nd day of sleeping on cold concrete
you see another person and just quietly drag him your way
it doesn't matter if you know him or not
you just drag him towards you, cuddle him and sleep together like this
and you don't really care about anything else. You sleep cuddling and that's it
No, there are no other thoughts, none of that
because everyone gets it
So I was standing but I was still cold though
but three people away from me there was this guy
with a broken nose
and he was all covered in blood, his entire face covered in blood
blood would drip from his nose periodically
the blood dried up, thank God his bleeding stopped
but it looked horrible. Every time I'd feel sh*tty, I would just
look his way and realise that I am actually ok
I was like "Dude, stay strong, stay strong"
The only way to warm up was to ask to go to the toilet
but I don't know like for
the first 6 hours
They would't allow that at all
They would shout: "Do it in your pants, do it in your pants" and laugh
and there were some men who peed themselves
and some peed even earlier while inside the police van
probably out of fear
there was even one who even sh*t himself, yes. At some point they started allowing toilet breaks
How does it happen?
Exactly the same way they took you into the police vans
When they bring you to the bathroom they kick you in the back
so that you lie down
but it's very hard to lie down with tied up hands
so you do it like this. You need to press your head
against something
Somehow like this
Here you go
And as you lie down for a long time in an uncomfortable position
you seek every tiniest solution to improve the situation
So you're looking for some bump somewhere
that you can press against so that your nose can breath
 
and you're not allowed to rest your head on one side like that
and this position for example
you're not able to do anything in this position either
you're not threatening anyone. But you're not allowed to lie down like this
because it's a comfortable position
so they came around all the time to make sure you were lying down like this
It was crazy
After around 8 hours after lying down in this position
 
you turn all numb.
You freeze your genitals
Your lungs turn cold lying on this ground
Everything turns numb
After around 8 hours we were allowed us to sit up on our knees
How does it go?
It's the only other position you're allowed to be in
So it goes like this - you have to press your head against something
 
press against the ground
And you're not allowed to sit on the knees like this
They will make you put your head against the ground with a shoe
Sitting on the knees is allowed only if you push against the ground with your head
Like this
It is ok if you compare it to the experience of lying down in one exact pose for eight hours
But in this pose everything is getting numb:
knees, feet, back
And the best you can do
is move back a little
But you are not allowed to raise your head
 
We've been for hours in this pose
 
Six hours, approximately
If you asked for tovarisch's (policeman) permission
 
Some men were allowed, some weren't
This guy, Egor, was dragged to interrogation room
And they started asking him
Who is the leader? Who does coordinate you?
If he answers wrong, they beat him
Punch him in the ear
So strongly, in fact, he falls from the chair
They hit him in the knees
Horrible stuff
When he left the room, it looked like they were jumping on his body, killing him
And I didn't even want to ask him if he was going to keep protesting
Everything was written on his face
It tempers you
He said "I just don't understand how you can treat human-beings like this
I remember this moment
It was only an hour in these handcuffs
Your joints get displaced
It hurts a lot
I have some energy left
When I was in there people were exausted
Men were coming to the fence and leaning against it
They raised hands with their fingers pushing against the fence
Because they've been exhausted so much, they could raise it normally
You stand like this and replenish your strength
These feelings were the best at that moment
At some point, the police (or OMOM), I couldn't distinguish
freed us for 5 minutes to move our hands
 
There were some policemen who recognized me
And there was this guy who asked me to tell you that there were policemen who gave me a cigarette
and talked with me about my videos for a few minutes
They asked me about Venezuela, North Korea
So here I am, telling you
that there are people like this guy
From what I heard, policemen acknowledged that not all rioters are idiots
 
"There are cool guys there" - they said
But most of the police
were absolutely sure
that every protester is getting paid
They asked about payment a lot
A few times an hour, at a minimum
They weren't simply making fun of people
They truly were curious
There was this small group of young (20 years) guys
They let them go at 6 in the morning
They almost left and the policeman asks (whispers):
"So, how much are you getting paid?
Is it $20? $30?
The OMON was the cruelest
They dominated, shouted: "Do you, scum, want changes? Have your changes!"
They were trying to supress you intentionally
And it worked, pretty much
 
I was lying there for six hours thinking
Is it really worth it?
For whom do I make this content?
I came here. And what did I prove?
Lying here on the ground not knowing what awaits me
For how long will I get locked up?
These people are unpredictable
They can lock you up for 20 years
They'll say "He is associated with terrorirsts or something"
Which means you walked near the place where protests took place some time
I understood that that is their point
You are being held in these awful conditions for days
They try to ruin one's life
They try...
They try to make people not rely on themselves
They try to make people to stop thinking
They try to convince people that their thoughts are bullshit
that you can live only way
This is their main purpose
To terrorize people
To make them tell others about all the scary stuff
Some part of me didn't want to record this video
because I don't want to scare people
This ain't my aim
I want people to understand what the hell happens there
 
People who keep protesting after leaving that prison are very brave
If you make every Belarussian go through that system they will elect Lukashenko, probably
To be honest, If I was a Belarussian
and left the prison
 
And they ask me, whom I will elect
"LUKASHENKO, OF COURSE"
Because, I have family, daughter
I don't want them to get beaten
I will choose Lukashenko, and later on I will think about how to fix my life
I don't think terrorizing people works
People are scared, but they protest anyway
We just drove and saw a lot of people
women, mainly
standing with flowers
cars passing by, honking. As a whole unity of the nation.
It is 8 hours of road from here
And I will finally be home
To be honest, EVERYTHING is in pain
Especially the ass
It was hit a lot with batons
and the concrete you was lying on
You take shoes, put them under the coccyx to make it all a little bit softer
And the coccyx is like "FFS man I can't hold you for THAT long"
 
 
It was...
It was...
It has happened and whatever
Can't say much more
Not the best experience
I am not broken but of course I left as fast as possible
And I understand that many can't afford to leave like I did
Belarussian people, I was really impressed by you
 
From the bottom of my heart
When I was leaving the prison
I had a great urge to hug these brave people
Of course, I didn't do it
Well, I couldn't
 
But I had a feeling I met...
 
...real, pure people
You want more of these people in your life
Because your life...
...gets more sense, more characters and etc.
 
Despite all this crazy stuff in the past days
I am grateful to the fate, I met these people
Because they are wonderful
I understand some of you can't afford to leave the country
 
 
I'm not here to give an advice but
you can be sure my heart is with you
My whole beaten up body is with you
You are abso-fucking-lutely amazing
 
Lyadov, speaking from the scene
