Salihorsk Activists Forced Russian Tricolors Removed From Kiosk

The owner of the kiosk apologized for the promotion of Russian symbols and asked for information to “get enlightened.”

Local activists Aliaksandr and Viktar Malachko noticed on sale at a kiosk near the Salihorsk district court not only Lukashenka’s red and green flags, but flags of the Russian Federation as well.

The next day, Viktar Malachko and Salihorsk human rights activist Leanid Markhotka visited the kiosk.

Chairman of the Minsk regional organization of the United Civil Party Viktar Malachko wrote about that on his Facebook page:

– We got in. Red and green flags and Russian flags were everywhere around us. We introduced ourselves to the saleswoman, started to talk. Meantime a young man, age 25, entered the kiosk. He appeared to be its owner. We introduced ourselves and said that we, as citizens of an independent state, were discontented with the fact, that he was selling flags of the neighboring state, the state, which at some point had occupied the GDL –Belarus, the state, which had occupied part of Ukraine.

He answered something like: “Russia is our brotherly nation, we used to fight against enemies together, rot away in trenches and so on.” I believe, he has never heard about the GDL and its occupation. Then he saw my “Pahonia” badge and said that he would sell white-red-white flags as well, but they were not available anywhere.

I had some white-red-white ribbons with me, and I suggested him just to hang them in the kiosk. He took them. But when I started to write a comment on the Russian flags offtake in the book of complaints, the young man behaved very differently. He started to threaten us by calling the police.

And then the guy spoke with complete abandon, he began to call us “idlers,” “Maidaners” and so on. Then he crumpled the ribbon, which I had given to him, and with all his might threw it to me onto the desk.

We didn’t enter into a debate with him, but only said that our comment was in the Belarusian language, so he might not have understood it, and it was written there, that we, as citizens of the Republic of Belarus, were discontented with the fact of the Russian Federation flags offtake. But we could not forbid him to sell those flags, although we promised to make an inquiry to the prosecutor’s office.

In the afternoon of the same day, the young man, I will not say his surname, but only mention his name, Dzmitry, called me. As it turned out, he called Markhotka as well and asked to forgive his hot tempered behaviour!

He explained sales of Russian flags by the lack of education, by the fact that he knows nothing about the historical relations of our country and Russia. He said that the flags had been discontinued and asked to give him some website names where one can “get enlightened”, if I had a chance to visit the kiosk. I do not even know, how Dzmitry’s “awakening” could come so quickly.

In the evening my son called and said that Dzmitry had removed the red and green flags together with Russian ones.