Political scientist Byshok: the verdict of the Russian citizen Dudnikov in Belarus will not affect the relations of the countries
Photo: Ivan Vodopyanov / Kommersant
The verdict of 21-year-old Russian citizen Egor Dudnikov in Belarus will not affect relations between Moscow and Minsk. So the court decision in a conversation with “Lenta.ru” was assessed by the executive director of the International Monitoring Organization CIS-EMO Stanislav Byshok.
The expert is sure that, despite a number of disagreements, there is a consensus between Russia and Belarus on the attitude towards the opposition.
“Both Moscow and Minsk prefer not to negotiate with the opposition, but to fight it, including through the judicial system,” the political scientist believes. In his opinion, the fact that Dudnikov has Russian citizenship is not a mitigating circumstance for the Belarusian authorities, since they understand that the Russian authorities also have no sympathy for the adherents of the non-systemic opposition.
Belarusian court sentenced Dudnikov to 11 years in prison
Dudnikov's verdict was announced on December 27. He was sentenced to 11 years in a maximum security colony on charges of inciting social hatred and calling for action against national security. The judge fully satisfied the requirements of the prosecutor set out in the indictment.
Dudnikov moved to Belarus for the sake of his girlfriend. He was detained in May. At first, the young man was accused of organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order. He was charged with the voice acting of videos for the opposition during the mass protests that gripped Belarus after the 2020 presidential elections.
Human rights activists called Dudnikov a political prisoner. In June, he managed to pass a note from the pre-trial detention center through his lawyer, in which he said that the Belarusian security forces tortured him, beat him and threatened him with murder.
Russian authorities have not yet responded to the court's decision
Back in June, the Russian ambassador to Minsk, Yevgeny Lukyanov, commenting on Dudnikov's arrest, said: “We, as an embassy, are obliged to provide our citizens with consular assistance wherever they are.” At the same time, he stressed, Dudnikov is the holder of general civil Russian passports and “does not have any exceptions from the legal field in Belarus”.
Byshok connects the lack of reaction of the Russian authorities to Dudnikov's statements about torture and pressure in the pre-trial detention center with his political views. For the same reason, the expert is sure that the Russian authorities will not intercede for him after the verdict.
At the same time, the expert emphasizes that the Russian authorities do not have such an attitude towards all oppositionists in the post-Soviet space. He recalled that Moscow is ready to provide assistance and support to representatives of the pro-Russian opposition forces in the Baltic States and Ukraine.
