Statkevich published photos of their new home with Maryna Adamovich

The politician and former political prisoner said that due to the demolition of houses in Loshytsa, he and his wife had to move to the village. He also recalled how the authorities spread rumors about his property, even though he lived modestly.

“The most common rumors are that oppositionists receive and appropriate huge sums of money from foreign countries. Due to the envy inherent in most people and their lack of imagination regarding other motives for a dangerous and unequal struggle against the regime, besides money and power, they often perceive these rumors as true,” writes Statkevich. —

Especially if a certain oppositionist actually owns some property (for example, a cottage or a car) that can be shown on state television.

It's more difficult when there is no such property. Then only oral rumors remain. But their effectiveness should not be underestimated. Especially since the regime has a powerful hidden network for spreading them. I mean secret agents and intelligence service informants (in short — snitches). Being a snitch is a morally uncomfortable function.

The motives for becoming snitches are usually the lowest. In society, snitches evoke disgust. Therefore, they gladly receive information from their handler about the supposedly low motives of oppositionists, immediately believe it, and willingly spread it even without orders. It's psychologically more comfortable for them to consider those they were forced to "snitch" on as the same scoundrels that people consider the snitches themselves to be.

Even more eagerly, snitches spread rumors about the supposed "snitching" of others, especially well-known people, which their handler "confidently" shares with them, not only to launch a rumor but also to psychologically support their snitch. As if to say, you're not the only one.

Look who else is working for us. True, here the object of discredit may also gain a certain bonus. Snitches perceive such a rumor so uncritically and with full trust that they might even start hinting to its subject during a meeting that they know about his "cooperation" and that they are, so to speak, "colleagues" in the matter of snitching. Thus revealing themselves. But this bonus also has a downside. For, as it is said in the Bible: "In much wisdom is much grief." Sometimes it becomes difficult not to lose faith in people.

I had to be the object of various rumors for almost decades. At first, I naively believed that I could not be the object of them in any way. But it was in vain — already in the late 90s, rumors appeared about "my cottage," for some reason, in Kalodzishchy.

Which I never managed to see, as it was never shown on BT (Belarusian Television), but various people, from policemen to artists, were firmly convinced of its existence. Decades passed, during which I spent a total of about 14 years in the depths of the regime's penitentiary system (in Akrestsina, "chemistry" [open-type correctional facilities], colonies, and prisons). In addition, with constant lawsuits (the latest one, which is "hanging" even now, as with my "accomplices" — 26 million rubles). But, as it quickly turned out, my imaginary "cottage" has survived to this day. Some details of it even appeared.

As a former correspondent of a well-known foreign democratic media told my wife's friend, I supposedly have a "three-level cottage." The friend replied that she had been to our home with Maryna and that it was an ordinary old house in Loshytsa, which, by the way, was often visited by that journalist's colleagues.

She, however, confidently and unequivocally stated: "You know nothing."

I cannot but give credit to the professionalism of the former journalist, because in some ways she was right — that "cottage" in Loshytsa was indeed "three-level," if you count the attic and the basement.

Well, the attic is visible to everyone. But how did she guess about the basement? That's what a professional means.

Now, due to the demolition of Loshytsa, we have moved from there. But, having already understood that further struggle with "my cottage" is senseless, I decided, perhaps for the first time in my life, to capitulate to the inevitable.

Therefore, I confess here to the existence of a "cottage," into which I recently moved instead of the city apartment allocated due to the demolition of the house in Loshytsa.

Because years of life in a concrete prison "wardrobe" measuring 1x3 meters without the possibility of seeing the sky even through a net, creates a special attitude towards things ordinary to other people — trees, grass, the sky outside the windows or overhead.

Moreover, I don't want to drag my usual "entourage" of bailiffs and various types of "law enforcement officers" into that new apartment. Maryna has already had enough dealings with them.

And the dogs need to go somewhere. Now in city apartments, it's forbidden to keep more than two pets. Can't throw the dogs and cats out onto the street. So everything just aligned.

Therefore, I decided to move into a currently two-level "cottage with a fireplace" in the village. True, no one had lived there for 20 years. I had to dry it out for a long time. The photos below show the cottage as I saw it this March.

Павялічыць

Now we continue to put it in order. Firewood for the winter has already been purchased. And the dogs are not superfluous here. It's no wonder that on the eve of the move, the valiant "services" conducted almost an entire special operation to steal them. And the smaller ginger one is a born fortifier; he digs burrows in which he can completely hide right before your eyes. So the number of levels in the "cottage" can grow to an unknown size. What a scope for the imagination of the local Pinkertons!

One shouldn't think that I've "gone underground" in the village. After all, it's not far from Minsk here, and transport runs regularly. If some get the idea to repeat the story here, like in 2010 with Aleh Byabenin [the journalist was found hanged at his dacha three months before the presidential elections — NN],

then, in such a case, I publicly state that I still very much love life, nature, and my loved ones, and I cannot even imagine any reason to change my attitude towards all of this. Besides, I am used to seeing my affairs through to the end.

Павялічыць

P. S. I suggest to the bailiffs not to get excited — the "cottage," as well as all property within it, does not belong to me," wrote Mikalai Statkevich.

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