Moscow publisher Pasternak - about his arrest in Minsk: "I was not beaten..."

Moscow publisher Boris Pasternak has been in Minsk for the past few days, in the midst of the Belarusian protest, and reported on the events there in his blog. But yesterday, alarming information circulated on social networks that Pasternak was detained by the Minsk OMON and a criminal case was being “sewn up” for him. Fortunately, so far everything worked out, as the victim himself wrote about:

“I will certainly report on today, only a little later. In the meantime, just a few shots, which, perhaps, were the reason for my detention by the OMON at the Pushkinskaya metro station.

I left the underpass and immediately approached the spontaneous memorial to Alexander Taraikovsky, who died at this place on August 10. These flowers and lamps are regularly scattered and trampled by “caring citizens” (this is how Minsk titushki are now called). But today the flowers were lying. Here they are in the picture. But I was not the only one who stopped near them, but also two police minibuses, which we affectionately call minibuses. And around them immediately scuffles began - riot policemen began to grab the people standing near the memorial and push them onto buses.

The second picture clearly shows how one of the men is being “packed”. It's not me yet. But this is the last shot that I managed to take. One of the fighters jumped up to me from behind, pushed me to the ground, then together with another riot policeman they threw me into the minibus. Three more were put on top of me. I must say that the people who surrounded the bus tried to rescue us, they even, as it turned out later, damaged the door. But so, with this open door, we set off rather quickly.

They didn't beat me. But those who were lying on top were hit with both fists and clubs. For what exactly I was detained, it quickly became clear on the way. One of the riot police, a very young boy, sitting in the front seat, pointed at me with a truncheon and shouted: “This grandfather! He came up and kicked the minibus! There is a dent! " Well, what can I say ... I did not kick the bus. It's not his fault. And it was somehow not very comfortable for me to enter into a dialogue. Very quietly I asked the man who was lying on me to move his leg slightly - he pressed my knee. The shout immediately rose: “Silence! Head to the floor!". Well, and other different words.

They drove us around the city, but nowhere did they want to accept us, or something... At one of the parking lots one riot policeman pulled out a white-red-white flag from under the seat and began to wipe his boots with it, then threw it at his feet, on a step, commenting at the same time their actions. In general, they behaved somehow too demonstratively: they constantly shouted, brandished their clubs, promised that we would rot in prison until the end of our days. And they even carried out political information: “We've read a lot of the Internet! Sheep! Where are you climbing! Fuck you! " All the time it seemed that they were winding themselves up for vigor and courage.

Finally they took us to a police department (later it turned out that to Frunzensky) and handed us over to the police. There we were already taken to different offices, and I never met my neighbors in the busik. I would like to hope that everything is more or less well with them. And I went from office to office, from floor to floor, performing all sorts of police procedures.

The most unpleasant news for me was that on the basis of the testimony of the riot police they were "sewing" a criminal article for me - damage to a police vehicle. Four or five times I gave testimony - both orally and on video, they seized all my personal belongings and took a long, very careful inventory of them. We put everything in a bag. In general, I have no complaints about the police, everyone who communicated with me behaved quite correctly and followed legal procedures. They called a lawyer and let him talk to him. Well, sometimes they asked funny questions. What does the publisher do? What, some books write, while others print them? Why do you have so much money with you? What, such a big pension? Ah, in two months! Why do you get it in Minsk, and not in Moscow? I even said that we have a Union State in which there is no double taxation.

But in the meantime my business was moving forward. Finally the investigator announced to me that he was detaining me for 72 hours pending charge. The policeman who took me to the offices explained that they would keep me in Akrestsin Street. Then I began to sign different protocols, in each, naturally, adding that I did not hit the bus, the accusation was wrong.

At some point, it turned out that there were not enough two more lawyers, they rushed to call them somewhere. But then my gloomy investigator returned to the office and stopped everything: “Wait to call. One accusation is not confirmed. " This was my charge. The investigator said: “You are free. Only now will you be interrogated as a witness to this incident". To which my lawyer immediately said: "You have every right not to testify". I used this right with pleasure.

Why the accusation was not confirmed, I do not know. Either they looked at my pictures, because my smartphone was immediately taken away from me. There you can see that I was standing far enough from this minibus. Either they watched a police video - a man with a camera was walking there. Either they simply regretted (or did not want to contact) because of their venerable age. But I still have a secret hope that the riot policeman who poked me with a truncheon refused to make false statements. Suddenly, my conscience got stuck, eh?".