Piatras Ausztryavicius: There Are Strong Politicians That Lukashenko Is Afraid Of

• 19.06.2025, 10:35

Their words can change the opinion of many thousands of Belarusians.

Ex-head of Belgazprombank Viktor Babariko was one of the main rivals of Alexander Lukashenko at the beginning of the presidential campaign in 2020, but Babariko could not take part in the election as a candidate for the post of the head of state - on June 18, 2020 he was arrested together with his son Eduard, accused of taking a bribe on a large scale and money laundering. Viktor Babariko was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Eduard Babariko - to eight, and later an additional two years.

"Deutsche Welle" spoke to Viktor's symbolic godfather, MEP and European Parliament's permanent rapporteur on Belarus Piatras Austriavicius about what can be done to free Belarus' political prisoners.

"Dictator Lukashenko has a very long and evil memory"

Viktor Babariko has been behind bars for five years. Since then, a new presidential campaign has already taken place in Belarus, by which Lukashenko tried to demonstrate that he was in control of the situation in the country. Why Lukashenko still won't let Viktor Babariko go?

- Dictator Lukashenko has a very long and wicked memory. He knows his opponents and therefore avoids them. He does not want any, even symbolic obstacle in his political path. He is used to political comfort when he has full control over the political market. And he will by all means avoid releasing those opposition leaders who pose certain challenges to him. These are Viktor Babariko, Nikolai Statkevich, and Pavel Seviarynets - that is, mature, strong personalities who have the ability to lead people, whose words could change the opinion of many thousands of Belarusians. Therefore, it so happened that the fate of Viktor Babariko became dependent on his personality, that is, on his ability to influence the political process. And here Lukashenko does not compromise, unfortunately.

- Do you, as Babariko's symbolic godfather, have any new information about him?

- When sending him letters, I realize that they are one-way letters. Victor Babariko has no opportunity to answer, to correspond. And this shows a sad and sad picture: as unpleasant as it may be to admit it, but it so happens that Lukashenko keeps his political prisoners in terrible conditions. Not only physically, but morally and psychologically.

We can imagine what it means to spend five years behind bars, when all kinds of dirty actions are used against you, and you can't even tell anyone about it. This is the brutality of the system created by Lukashenko and his courtiers.

And all this is directed against people, against the free choice of Belarusians, because I am sure that the choice would have been made quite differently. And the people in their national discussions would have talked not about potatoes, but about those issues that are important for everybody and should be solved at the national level - about freedom, the future of the country, the priorities of the society development, people's opportunities and so on.

- You have already mentioned that you write letters to Viktor Babarika. What else is your function as his symbolic godfather?

- One of my main tasks is to constantly remind about him. And that's why in all our major resolutions or other political documents that we adopt in the European Parliament, I always try to remind about Viktor Babariko as one of the leaders, who, by the way, was arrested even before all the events.

Yes, many were released, many were exchanged and so on, but the main (political prisoners. - Ed.), who challenged Alexander Lukashenko at that time, remain in prison. Therefore, the moral and political duty of those who look after political prisoners is to remind about them and try to make sure that there are no compromises made at the expense of the lives and conditions of imprisonment of these people. And I will do this until Viktor Babariko sees freedom.

"It's torture to keep people in incommunicado"

- In January 2025, Viktor Babariko was shown on video - at that time there had been no contact with him for more than a year and a half. How did you react to this footage?"

- We don't have any empty illusions that Lukashenko will react to our every statement, although we make a lot of them and constantly keep this issue on the agenda.

I would say that it's just such a moral and psychological torture - to keep people in incommunicado. And it's torture not only for them, but also for their family, the loved ones of the inmates. As I know, Statkevich has been in incommunicado for more than 800 days, which in itself is a huge ordeal for his loved ones. Even one day is hard to explain, you can't forget it, and people live in such conditions. We know what we are dealing with - with a very harsh dictatorship, and I speak about it openly.

- Is there any communication between the European Union and the regime of Alexander Lukashenko about the release of political prisoners? And in general, what can the EU do for their release?

- This is a very serious political issue. I have heard of some proposals, even from the opposition, to make a compromise in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But when the dictator himself remains in place, some prisoners will be replaced by others. I don't think that will work. We can only influence only by a hard onslaught on Lukashenko's system, reducing his economic, financial capacity and so on.

I am not the kind of person who would go for such a deal at the expense of the people, it's like trading slaves. But of course, we should do everything possible to make this tension and pressure on official Minsk only grow.

- So if the regime of Alexander Lukashenko offers a deal - the release of Viktor Babariko and other well-known political prisoners in exchange, for example, for permission to transit potassium through Lithuania, you would not support it?

- Personally, I - no. Because I think that playing with people's fates and selling slaves, political slaves, is immoral.