Maksim Znak: The whole country is a big colony

— You were able to see the system from within. As a lawyer, it must have been difficult for you to witness all those abuses of law?

— What kind of system this is, I clearly understood at the trial. And after that, I no longer wrote any complaints. I had 39 disciplinary penalties, assigned with all possible violations. I documented them, but I didn't write complaints. I simply drew attention to the violations. For example, they wrote that I failed to execute an order at a certain time, but they themselves wrote that the order was given an hour after that time. All my violations were of a similar nature.

The fact that I documented them was met with additional penalties, but legally I didn't formalize anything, because it was absurd.

So, I wouldn't say I suffered greatly, understanding that the system doesn't work. For me, it was a given, and every new confirmation didn't outrage me.

As for having seen the system from within, that's indeed true. I think I wrote in the preface to *The Colonists* that we have a prison ideology, a way of life that spreads both vertically and horizontally, in all directions. That is, if we, for example, swap the clothes of guards and criminals, we won't be able to distinguish them. They talk the same way, they have the same interests; it's like one community.

And if we look upwards from the level of a guard to the level of a minister, how orders are given to them, how they react to this, how they practice this criminal ideology, in the sense of certain declared values, then it seems to me they look the same at the top and at the bottom. Therefore, this is not just a prison model; it is a regime model.

The whole country is a big colony. I hadn't seen this element before, wasn't familiar with criminal culture. And it was unclear to me why, during a meeting with Lukashenka, a person stands up and accepts all reproaches, remains silent, and looks down. And this is the same as in criminal tradition.

And such trifles in conversations, certain actions, questions that are asked, I now see everywhere. Therefore, it is obvious to me that the prison component is present in all spheres of public life. The entire vertical of power is built on prison traditions.

Maksim Znak believes that for many, this prison ideology is absolutely natural. Almost all Belarusian society is permeated by it. Nevertheless, at the first opportunity, he would like to return to Belarus.

— Which Belarus would you like to return to?

— To a free, independent one, that's obvious. To a Belarus that is not a prison, at least. And not just for me personally, but in a global sense. What could lead to this? Many different things. But it's also not worth hoping that this will happen without our participation.

It seems to me that the main role in this, however unpleasant it may be for us, will be played by those who are inside, who remain in Belarus. Because most Belarusians remain in Belarus. And there is life there, there are various events to which they react. And they were also in the Square, in the streets. When we say that this was a nation, that we were 80 percent. And it is precisely up to us what Belarus will be like. And a little bit on geopolitics.

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