Vasil Bykov died three days after he turned 79. This interview was recorded one month prior to his hospitalization to the intensive care of the oncology clinics in Borovlyany. Following you may read a short excerpt from it.
— You remain in political exile…
— I’m living there against my will. The regime, which got rooted in my home country doesn’t let me live and work there. How can one live in a country, where the death squads exist? They had been set up by the state structures and kill people, especially those who stand in opposition to the authorities. It goes without saying that Russian mass media don’t report of that willingly.
- Did the Belarusian regime try to buy you?
- Not a single week passed without their mudslinging me via the hands of their Russian literature lackeys. They defamed me and tried to annihilate. So why should they buy me? Prisoners of concentration camps aren’t bribed – they are killed.
I guess, such regimes gain more notoriety when the people of art serve its goals. In other cases a person gets under the police control and can no longer fight for the interests of the society or some idea, but for his own survival.
— What’s the most acceptable variant of relations between Russia and Belarus?
— One should distinguish between the notions “union of states” and “integration”. Nobody in Belarus is opposed to the union with any country, let alone with Russia, which is Belarus’ closest neighbor. However, in this case they are hiding behind that word “union” totally different acts and goals. However, let me warn Russians: after anti-democratic Belarus is annexed to Russia the latter will in no wise become more democratic. Instead, it will be returned back in her democratic development.
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