Steep escape route from Belarus

After a forced escape from Belarus my way to Europe lasted exactly 4 months.
This month seemed to me endless, because there is nothing exhausting expectations, moreover, in isolation. Immediately apologize for the information that appeared in the first few days after my disappearance - that I'm in a refugee camp in one of the EU. Of course, in any camp, I could not have been so long, especially without calling their country of residence.
This long road is easy to explain - after a half months in prison, the KGB did not return my passport. Although it is quite illegally - with the release on bail before trial the defendant must return the documents. However, the Belarusian KGB, as we know, always spit on the legality of.

On the eve of my interrogation at the Minsk I really made ​​it clear that the site charter97. org decided to shut up once and for all. After his release from prison I was constantly threatened by the KGB back in the camera ... My ... And the people who worked with the presidential candidate, as is known, the Lukashenko regime dealt a most cruel manner.

In fact, the very prison I do not really scared, and. It was terrible to another - it is clear that Belarus will not allow me to work in any way. It became clear in March 2010, after the defeat of the office site and the first criminal case. Then came the second, third, and finally, the fourth - for the events of December 19, 2010. I remember as a KGB colonel threatened me five years in prison just for the publication of calls for presidential candidates to protest peacefully against the square rigged elections. Aggravating circumstance was, as he put it, my ...

What they will not leave me alone, it became clear after his release from prison, in exile in Kobrin. After each of the critical articles in the house of my parents came a police car and drove to the local branch of the KGB, where I was threatened with an immediate return to prison bunks.

So when I called the investigator and ordered to appear for questioning in Minsk, I thought exactly fifteen minutes. It was a chance to leave the Kobrin. Notified a policeman, I 'm going in for questioning in the capital, the evening of 30 March, I got on a train Brest-Minsk. In the morning I went to the station ... At the station I was greeted by friends, and I left the car in Moscow. April 1st, I was already outside Belarus, and very glad that I could therefore congratulate Belarusian KGB with their professional holiday.

Of course, openly declared in Russia, I could not. The Belarusian authorities immediately demanded to be my issue. Possible there was another, more unpleasant option. It has long been known as the Belarusian secret services behind the scenes work in the Russian Federation. Lack of boundaries allows them to steal people on the streets of Moscow, is placing an arrest in Belarus. Thus, according to human rights, there has been this spring with the anarchist Olinevichem Igor, who was later sentenced to eight years in prison.

In Moscow, once a problem receiving the documents, because I could not legally leave the territory of Russia.

I asked for help in the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Russia. She passed all the necessary formal procedures, and since my case has been well documented, the question of my relocation to a third country was considered a priority. Although these months have been for me one of the most difficult in life to complain about. Usually this procedure lasts up to two years.

About my stay in Russia knew some human rights activists and politicians who have given me all the support. The man who helped me the most directly in Moscow, was a member of the Human Rights Council under the Russian President, Chairman of the Committee ... Led by Svetlana Alekseyevna organization, in my opinion, today is the most effective human rights framework Russia. It really saves people. This I saw when came in a small basement on Dolgorukovskaya, where is the ... A huge number of refugees from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other countries are deprived of the help is there. And although hundreds of times greater than the employees of this human rights organization, each supported.

The whole mechanism is run by my friends Natalia Kolyada, Irina Bogdanova and Nikolai Khalezin, Irina Krasovskaya, Pavel Selin, Fyodor Pavlyuchenko and Pavel Marinich.

I also thank the Russian authorities for the fact that, despite the ...

And very grateful to the readers of the site, which remained with us all this hard time. In isolation I very much support your comments.

All these four months I lived in the apartment of his friends in Moscow, continued to operate the site editor charter97. org and tried not to appear in public places.

After the recognition of my refugee by the UN, the first state to international support rendered to me, were the Netherlands. July 28, after completing travel documents, I flew from Moscow to Amsterdam. I am very grateful to the Netherlands for their salvation, but three days later I went to Lithuania. After the presidential election poster charter97. org has been registered in this country, here is my team, and fully carry out its functions editor I can now only in Vilnius. August 4th, I asked for political asylum in Lithuania.

During all these months I have experienced the hard way what being a refugee. And I can just say - nothing to envy. I would never have gone from Belarus, if, as Vysotsky sang, not ... So we had to answer, as I consider it necessary. Play by the rules, which are now established in Belarus, the KGB, I'm not going. Hunted rush the shot is not in my nature, and therefore ...

I'm sure I'll be back home very soon, and my Belarusian passport returned to me the country's new democratic government.

Natalia Radina, editor of the site. charter97. org.