Dmitrii Bondarenko: “They put pressure on people, try to break them, threaten them”

The political prisoner is calling on the West to refrain from premature optimism about the release of a few people convicted for the events on 19 December.

He writes about this in a letter to Viktor Boldin, the personal aide of presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov in the Mogilev region.

“I’ve heard nonsense, that certain persons from the West have welcomed this release. People are pressured, bullied and threatened, but those persons welcome it (the release). Stupid, funny persons,” Bondarenko says in his letter to Boldin, who has quoted it to “BelaPAN”.

Dmitrii Bondarenko, held in detention centre No. 1 in Minsk after an operation on his spine, says that he will not be able to sit for several several months yet. “Even this letter I am writing standing up, leaning against the upper bunk. In short, I will have to get used to life only standing or lying down,” the political prisoners writes, thanking people for their support and greeting “all our people”.

The letter is dated 23 August. According to the postmark, it was delivered to Mogilev the following day.