In the year since the beginning of Russia's large-scale aggression, hundreds of Belarusians have been detained for supporting Ukraine.

The police and the KGB arrested people for posts on social networks, for damaging railway equipment, and fixing Russian equipment.

was one of those detained for filming military personnel from Russia in Belarus

.

He escaped from the colony and told Svaboda how everything happened.

"The KGB considered me not so dangerous and handed me over to GUBAZiK for execution"

Oleg Borodin lived in Gomli, worked as a director of furniture production.

On March 29, 2022, he was detained by KGB officers, says the interlocutor.

"They were detained correctly, near the office of my company.

They took him to their house for interrogation, which lasted six hours.

The attitude was biased, the interrogation nervous.

They were looking for my involvement in the "rail war".

They didn't find anything like that in the phone, so they handed me over to GUBAZiK," Oleg recalls.

He clarifies that a few days before his arrest, he cleaned his phone of "compromise".

"The reason for the detention was that on March 16 I photographed two Russian soldiers in the center of Goml.

They were drunk and carrying a bag with alcohol and a snack.

The KGB stated that by my actions I disgraced the "honor and dignity" of the Russian army in the person of these soldiers.

It's quite a controversial question, who shamed whom," says a resident of Gomlje.

In GUBAZIK, Oleg, as he said, was accused of subscribing to "extremist" Telegram channels.

"The employee of GUBAZiKu was sincerely surprised that the KGB handed me over to them.

Apparently, they considered it not so dangerous.

They interrogated me, took a video without the repentance they needed from me," Oleg added.

He says that the policemen looked at him with "great indifference", they became animated only when they found out that Oleg is the director of a furniture company.

"One of the staff then said, 'Nah... do you need this?'

What did you miss?", the Belarusian recalls.

"My wrists were torn and ground to flesh from the handcuffs"

Oleg's fingerprints were taken at the police department.

"When I asked about the possibility of washing my hands, the operator laughed: "Why?

The paint is good, then it will come off with the skin."

After various "formalities" such as a trial, in two minutes Oleg received 15 days of arrest and was sent to a detention center.

"I probably won't say anything new here.

Full supervision, undressing, then handcuffed and dragged into the cell in a hunchback position.

They slept without mattresses, bed linen.

At night, they are taken up for a "check".

The light is on 24 hours a day.

Teeth chattering cold.

There was no heating.

All movements are handcuffed.

It seemed to me that the escorts got pleasure when they grabbed the handcuffs and forcefully turned their hands up - so that the joints crunched.

My wrists were torn from the handcuffs and smeared to the flesh," says Oleg.

Oleg Borodin's hands after shackles

He says the sight of prison food made him sick.

"For breakfast - porridge from the cut without any taste, for lunch - empty soup, pasta boiled to the state of one lump.

There could be a boiled egg or semolina cutlet with added meat, porridge for dinner.

It was simply impossible to eat.

There were cases when the "food" contained "cowtuns" made of women's hair, and the soup contained bite-sized pieces of crab sticks," says the interlocutor.

He claims that he lost 11 kilograms of weight in 15 days behind bars.

Oleg Borodin remembers how mockingly the calls of the escort to get the supplement sounded: "Yum-yum!

Food!

Supplements for whom?

Food!".

"Some convoys tried to create unbearable conditions for "political""

Oleg also says that the attitude of the convoys to "politicians" was different.

Some, according to the Belarusian, could even hand over something that their relatives had brought, but did not take it up at night for "checking".

Others created unbearable conditions for the "political".

"They didn't bring toilet paper, for example.

Two new "politicians", young guys, knocked on the door of the cell, shouted that they know their rights, demanded a lawyer.

Convoys shouted that they would take their heads off.

Then the escorts entered the cell.

I can't say unequivocally that I heard the screams well, but after that episode, I couldn't hear those guys," says Oleg.

Later he got into the cell, which he called "famous".

"The walls were written with soap - "Dead Belarus", "Alive".

There was a "patriotic" table, all written with "We believe, we can, we will win", "End", "Live" and other inscriptions.

When I read these inscriptions, it inspired me, because I realized how many indomitable people passed through this cell," the Belarusian added.

"The most important thing at the ICU is the people you sit with."

In the detention center, Oleg got to know other "political" people who got there for filming Russian equipment or military personnel.

One of them is Viktar Kulinka, an IT employee (In August 2022, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for "facilitating extremist activities", also for filming Russian equipment. - RS).

"He was detained together with his wife.

They took away all the equipment, telephones.

However, the wife was released after questioning.

The fact was that Viktor removed Russian equipment from his window in the city center.

That's why they probably counted him out," Oleg suggests.

He was in the intensive care unit with another IT specialist detained in Gomla, Andrei Utkin (he was sentenced to two years in prison at the trial. — RS).

"Young man, born in 1991, the only son of elderly parents.

He was detained, according to his words, very harshly, according to all the canons of the "Mento circus", with the use of weapons, "clowns in bulletproof vests".

The boy was arrested for recording a truck belonging to the Russian occupiers on Sovetskaya Street in Gomla on his car's video recorder.

In order to detain him, the police organized a whole "special operation".

He was severely pressured, his psyche was simply broken.

The guy had to sign everything that was pushed to him," says Oleg.

There, in the detention center, Oleg met the railway worker Alexander Luchynovych (at the trial he received 2 years in prison for "facilitating extremist activities." — RS).

"He worked on the railway.

He was brought to the detention center in a railway uniform.

He filmed a train with Russian military equipment on his phone and was caught on the station's surveillance camera.

"They just accepted him at work," Oleg added.

Borodin believes that the most important thing at ICH is the people you sit with.

"If the neighbor is morally broken, closed in on himself, then the time spent with him will be suffering.

If a person looks for at least some positive and looks at things with a sense of humor, even if it is dark, then everything is easier to bear.

I had such a roommate, Sergei.

We called the camera inspection "a tent circus with clowns", a search - "remedial procedures a la gymnastics", a meal - "a trip to a restaurant".

Moreover, we laughed so much that the guard was standing under the door and eavesdropping," says Oleg Borodin.

"I was the only one who was released after the "days""

Borodin says that he was the only one detained for filming Russian soldiers or equipment who was released after "days".

"I suspect that GUBAZIK thought that, having a wife, children, and a company in Gomla, I would not go anywhere from them, I would not leave Belarus.

I understood that 15 days of arrest would not end here, I would be "rounded up".

Went to the lawyers.

They didn't give me any hope there, they said that I would be guaranteed a seat.

I transferred the property to my wife, found out that a criminal case was opened against me, took a small bag and went to Moscow," says Oleg.

From Moscow he moved to Yerevan, from there to Tbilisi.

As of March 20, Oleg and his wife and children are already in Israel.

"The falsification of elections in Belarus led to an unexpected popular wave of resistance.

Tens of thousands of detainees, sadistic brutality of the police, torture, violence... And the last straw is Russia's war against Ukraine.

Many Belarusians, at their own risk, recorded the movement of Russian equipment and posted this information on telegram channels.

This is our Belarusian answer and a powerful contribution on the way to freedom," Oleg added.

Secure communication

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HERE