“Among those thirty people standing by the wall there might be maybe ten women and girls. When one of them saw what they have been doing to men, who were beaten without mercy, she had this hysterical fit. The ugly thing was that as the OMON-men were beating people in the courtyard, those girls came from time to time, from the militia, and they were just having a pleasant conversation, as though nothing was happening. It almost looked like that this was the thing to do, when they were beating them blue. You just couldn't understand that. At night, detained women were allowed to sit on a kerb. They were not allowed to look in the direction of the ONON-men. One of them looked at the militia women who went out for a cigarette and this OMON-man told her: 'What are you looking at, bitch!? They will deal with you in no time!'”
“The courtyard was ruled by the OMON. There were tens of people who were detained on the previous day and during the night. They twisted our arms behind our backs, they made us stand by the fence and they took away our belongings. They wanted me to tell them my telephone password. I refused to tell them and they started to beat me right away. They took me to this other part of the courtyard, behind a bus, they threw me on the ground, they pressed my knee against the ground and said: 'Now you will eat dirt and in the end you will tell us anyway. It's just a matter of time.' I realised that I couldn't endure such a thing so I told them the password. They led me back to the fence and started searching my phone. They asked who my coordinator was. And why I just couldn't enjoy normal living. 'You wanted change – we'll give you change,' they said. They promised me that there would be maybe three percent of my health left after they were finished with me. They were threatening me with a long-term prison sentence.”
“They won't let independent observers enter the polling station. I stood outside by the window counting all the people who went down the hallway to vote. And a school principal went out and she accused me of stalking. She claimed that voters were complaining. But I haven't been breaking any rules, so I just stayed where I was. She came back with a militiaman. She cited this KGB decision according to which the school premises were considered a special-regime compound, and using her authority she ordered me to stay behind the fence. In the end I went to pick up my binoculars, so we kept watching the hallway through the same window using binoculars. We wrote to some journalists from the 'Radio Liberty' (Radio Free Europe), they came and did coverage about independent observers doing their job. And this piece with the binocular got to the “Navalny LIVE' channel.”
Vitalij was born in 1994 in Minsk, Belarus. His mother (née 1976) - a primary school teacher, works as a plant manager. His father (née 1972) - he was a police officer until 2002, then an employee of the MAZ plant (Minsk Automobile Plant). He left the police, also for fundamental reasons. Vitalij has a younger sister (born 2003). He graduated from the University of Technology in Minsk. The witness worked on compiling a Belarusian multilingual dictionary. He worked as an administrator and artistic director in the “Fischer House” antique café. Vitalij completed an internship and worked as a social media moderator at Radio Svoboda. He collected signatures for the nomination of V. Babariko for the presidential candidate. The witness was an independent observer in the 2020 presidential election in the polling station at School No. 6 in Minsk and noted the falsification of voting results. On August 12, he came out on the street with the banner “Strike!”. Vitalij was arrested and beaten at the district police department of the Soviet district of Minsk, then at the Center for the Isolation of Offenders on Okrestina Street. He is in rehabilitation in the Czech Republic now.
