"I had a chance to take a different path." Viktor Babariko on the day of his arrest 6 years ago

Photo: Lookby.Media

"Why should I save myself and leave everyone else?"

The morning of June 18, 2020, began for Viktor Babariko with a driver's warning that all roads to the village were blocked, and, most likely, there would be arrests. The presidential candidate was planning to go with his son Eduard to the CEC to submit the signatures collected for himself.

"I had a chance to take a different path, as there were quite a few exits from the village where I lived. But I still decided to take the usual road. The only thing I did was get behind the wheel of my car myself, so as not to put the driver at risk, and drove off. At the exit from the village, they were already waiting for me and arrested me," the politician recalls.

Mr. Viktor's son was arrested with him. The security forces did not show their IDs or explain exactly which agency they belonged to. They got behind the wheel of Babariko's car, put him in the back seat, and drove to the Department of Financial Investigations.

The former political prisoner says that it was clear a week before those events that there would be arrests when almost the entire leadership of Belgazprombank was arrested.

"I had a whole week to leave if I wanted to. And secondly, I thought the regime was not so weak, because Alexander Lukashenka then stated that he would never imprison Babariko before the elections. At that time, it seemed that all this would be short-lived. And thirdly, according to my principles, it would be pure betrayal of the people who were with me. Why should I save myself and leave everyone else in the Republic of Belarus? For me, this was incomprehensible," says Babariko.

Understanding — it's for the long haul

On the day of his arrest, the politician was first held for a long time in the DFI, then transferred to the "Amerikanka" — the KGB pre-trial detention center, and there in the evening, he was taken for interrogation, which was interrupted around eight or nine in the evening, and Mr. Viktor was sent back to his cell.

"Already in the cell, I heard some honking from the street, other noise. And then those who were with me in the cell said: this is probably protests because of you. Honestly, I didn't quite believe it, because for me it was unexpected. I didn't think it would be like that, but later it turned out to be true," he says.

The politician notes that it became clear that everything was serious and for the long term after August 9, when the brutal suppression of protests began. Although information reached them with a significant delay, lawyers were not allowed in, but from the fragments they told, it was clear that the authorities had resorted to unprecedented repression.

"From the lawyers' accounts, it was clear that it would be a very brutal crackdown. And Russia then outlined its position – it was said that their divisions were already on standby to join the crackdown. That is, they thereby untied the regime's hands. Then it became clear that there was a great chance that all this would be for a long time," the former political prisoner recalls.

About the meeting with Lukashenka in the KGB pre-trial detention center

On October 10, 2020, Lukashenka organized a meeting with political prisoners in the KGB pre-trial detention center, including Viktor Babariko. The "Belsat" interlocutor says that he still does not understand why that meeting took place. The only explanation he sees, perhaps, is that "Lukashenka probably wanted to believe that some millions of terrible forces were behind us, not the Belarusian people, to see some terrible villains who wanted to do something."

Perhaps Lukashenka wanted to show these "criminals" to his younger son Nikolai, whom he brought to the meeting, says Babariko. But he failed, because instead of criminals, he saw ordinary people.

It is also possible that at that meeting, Lukashenka wanted to psychologically break his opponents. The politician recalls two moments that were particularly painful for him personally:

"Firstly, he then clearly outlined what my term would be – he said: Babariko, you will serve 14 years. Knowing how our judicial system works, I understood that I would indeed serve 14 years. And secondly – he delivered a rather harsh blow when he said: well, you went yourself, but why did you put the most sacred thing at risk – your son? But, I think, it deeply affected him when Eduard interrupted him and said: this was not my father's choice, it was my personal choice. These moments were significant for me at that meeting. In all other respects, I still don't understand why it was needed."

Lukashenka at that meeting, according to Babariko's recollections, looked as always – like a person for whom power is the main value in life, for which he will stop at nothing. But also then, before the political prisoners, there was a man who, probably for the first time, was on the verge of losing his power, he is convinced.

"And he wanted to see those who wanted and could take this power from him. But he saw no one but the Belarusian people. But he was not lost then. He looked like a man completely obsessed with power," says the politician.

"A psychological pill"

Then came the trial – on July 6, 2021, Judge Ihar Liubavitski sentenced Viktor Babariko to exactly the term Lukashenka had announced in the KGB pre-trial detention center – 14 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. The politician was accused of "legalization ('money laundering') of funds obtained by criminal means" (Article 235 of the Criminal Code of Belarus) and "receiving bribes" (Article 430).

Babariko spent more than four years in Novopolotsk Correctional Colony No. 1. He was released on December 13, 2025, and taken with a group of other political prisoners to Ukraine, from where he went to Poland and then to Germany, where he is now starting all over again. The politician says that this is like a third life, some new state. Before 2020, he lived in his native country with certain opportunities and plans. And then there were six years in conditions unlike anything he had experienced before and after.

Now is the third stage, in which everything starts anew, and life has to be built from scratch.

"Probably, to come to terms with this stage is to realize that you are starting all over again. Perhaps it's impossible to fully come to terms – you can only try to preserve yourself," notes the politician.

In this new life, what saves him from despair and difficult experiences is what Babariko himself calls a "psychological pill": when things are bad, and it seems that everything is complicated and nothing is working out, the former political prisoner recalls where he was on December 12, 2025 – in a penal colony. Little can compare to that place in terms of difficulty, he notes:

"This 'pill' always helps, because you understand that you are free, and here you can do much more, and you have more options, no matter how difficult it is. Although, of course, it is psychologically difficult to start from scratch at an older age, it is definitely better than being in prison."

"It cannot be that 6 years in prison did not affect health"

As for physical health, Babariko says he never took care of it as much as he did in prison and after his release. Behind bars, there were two main goals: to preserve mental and physical health. And at liberty, in Germany, local doctors convinced the politician, who is not very fond of hospitals and medical procedures, that "it cannot be that six years in prison did not affect his health in any way."

"So, a full 'technical inspection' is necessary," Babariko jokes. "And that's the direction I'm moving in."

In his new, free life, the former political prisoner wants to do what he did before – "build, create something new and good," even if the resources and opportunities are now different than in his homeland. Babariko intends to make maximum efforts for the Belarusian people.

"The concept of 'Belarus' is very conditional for me; I don't really understand what 'Belarus' is. But I understand what the Belarusian people are. I understand these people, they are dear to me, because we lived together, I like their values, I share many of their beliefs. Therefore, I will make maximum efforts to ensure that they have more opportunities for self-realization, so that they understand that respect and freedom are the most valuable things," the politician reflects.

"I love utopias"

It is partly with this goal that Babariko conceived the Belarus Network project. By definition, it will be a system for finding, uniting, and mobilizing the resources of Belarusians inside and outside the country to solve common problems and preserve the subjectivity of the Belarusian nation.

"However utopian it may sound, and I love utopias, it will be an analogue of a network state. In any case, we will try. We don't have the opportunity to live together today. But we have new technologies that allow us to live, work, help, interact. We don't have a territory, but there is a virtual environment in which we will try to do something," explains the former political prisoner.

This will not be some virtual Belarus, but Belarus built on a system of communications using modern technologies, the politician notes. And the virtual environment here will not be an end, but a tool for communication.

Babariko considers it important to create such an environment because, in his opinion, without communication, without unification, without understanding each other, we risk finding ourselves in a situation where everyone will be in their own bubble. The ultimate goal of the project is "to give Belarusians the opportunity to freely choose in which country they want to live."

"There's no need to tell Belarusians what kind of Belarus they want to see. Let's create conditions for them to say it themselves," summarizes the former political prisoner.

In late June, offline meetings are planned in Warsaw, where the Belarus Network concept will be presented in more detail.

• 6
• 1
• 0
• 3
• 0
• 0
• 0
• 0