"He does not admit his guilt, because he does not understand what he should admit"

On that day, November 25, 2021, Andrei worked his shift and went for a bike ride around 5 p.m. - he is an avid cyclist.

"However, he returned a few minutes later, accompanied by four law enforcement officers in civilian clothes.

My children and I were ordered to go to another room, a search was conducted, his office equipment, phone, my tablet and other things were confiscated.

Then Andrei was ordered to get dressed and go with them.

They said that they would take him away for a short time, for a couple of days," said Andrei's wife Alesia Rak shortly after her husband's arrest.

At the same time, the security forces gained access to the Radio Svaboda telegram channel for a few minutes.

The next day, Andrei was sentenced to 10 days of administrative arrest for alleged hooliganism.

After serving his sentence, he was not released, and on December 23 it became known that a criminal case had been opened against the journalist.

On the same day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized "a group of citizens who united through the Internet resources of Radio Svaboda" as an "extremist formation".

Andrei was transferred from Akrestin to Voladark.

In the spring of 2022, he was placed in the Mogilev pre-trial detention center.

On June 8, a closed trial took place in the Mogilev Regional Court.

Judge Ihar Shvedau recognized Andrey as a "creator of an extremist organization" (Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to 6 years in prison.

The trial itself took place in a record short time - in 3 hours.

As Alesya Rak told after the meeting with her husband, Andrei evaluated the criminal case and the trial against him as follows: "Those who "investigated" his case and who judged "may not be the worst people that could happen to him in the current circumstances.

It was felt that they do their "work" without great desire, but this does not mean that he should love them.

After all, they made their choice."

About the sentence, he said that he does not admit his guilt, because "he does not understand what he should admit."

On September 1, 2022, Andrei Kuznechyk was transferred from Mogilev Prison No. 4 to Novopolatskaya Colony No. 1 of the enhanced regime to serve his sentence.

On September 9, the Ministry of Internal Affairs included Kuznechyk in the list of persons involved in "extremist activities".

Andrei works in the colony: he takes out the wire from the cable and cuts it into pieces.

The work is physically very hard.

"I've been living in Belarus since I was 13"

Kuznechyk knew and was well aware that the information space is being cleaned up in Belarus, all independent media are being destroyed, and that fellow journalists are being repressed.

Back in the summer of 2020, Ihar Losik was detained (and later sentenced to 15 years in prison), other "liberators" were imprisoned, and in the summer of 2021, Svoboda's Minsk office was vandalized.

Despite all this, he categorically refused to leave Belarus.

Andrei Kuznechyk

Just a couple of days before his detention, Andrei wrote a text explaining why he was staying in the country.

— "I have been living as a Belarusian since I was 13 years old, I entered the Faculty of Philology for her, I lived and worked with an orientation towards her, now I'm over 40, but the thing is not that it's too late to start from scratch, the thing is that I don't want to deviate from paths of work for the benefit of Belarus.

- In the current conditions, it seems to me less suffering to serve the invented term in prison than to say goodbye to the Motherland for an indefinite (until death) time (although here I could be fatally mistaken about how far repression can go).

- I believe that children, having grown up in a non-Belarusian environment, will become bearers of the values ​​of this environment, and Belarus is the only place on Earth where we have this environment, we can create it and count on it.

- I see that neighboring countries create their own historical myth on a foundation, sometimes different and even contradictory to the Belarusian one.

"I see that the neighboring countries of Belarus face challenges that may require no less sacrifice than the current situation demands from Belarusians today," Andrei explains why he did not leave Belarus with his family.

"Family is the most important thing for Andrei, as always"

Andrey Kuznechyk and his wife Alesia have a touching and long relationship.

They got to know each other in the first year of the Faculty of Science at BSU, and they started dating only 4 years later.

"Andrei is reliable, economical, very thorough, takes care of everyone.

We have been together for almost 20 years, and he comes up with surprises for me on holidays, even though I don't ask for anything.

He took on a lot of household chores.

From the daily purchase of products on it, and it is not easy to stock up on anything at the nearest store.

He goes around the whole district to buy my favorite bread, delicious milk... He buys special food for the cat from Belarusian-speaking sellers, it's a special journey," his wife recalled.

Andrei with his wife Alesia

The couple has two children.

The eldest Yanina turned 9 years old three weeks ago, she already understands where her father is.

Matvey the Younger - 3.

Previously, Andrei devoted all his free time to children, read a lot, taught him to ride a bicycle, and looked for interesting entertainment.

Now Alesya's wife tries to ensure that the children are not deprived of attention, and constantly reports to Andrey where they have been with the children, what they have learned.

And sends many photos so that the father can see how quickly they grow and change.

"I shoot a lot of photos and videos of children especially for Andrei, to somehow compensate for what he misses.

So that he feels closely connected with us.

He said that he witnessed various life dramas there, families were broken up.

That people cope with their situation in different ways.

But family is the most important for Andrei, as always.

He sincerely thanks people for supporting us," said Alesya.

Andrei educates his children through humorous poems from behind bars.

Alesia sends her husband postcards with beautiful pictures in every letter, and Andrey writes poems about them to his children.

She says that Andrey occasionally wrote poems, but not children's poems.

Andrei's poems are humorous, but with serious conclusions that are understandable to children.

At the beginning of November, Alesya and her children went to the Novopolotsk colony for a long-term meeting with Andrei.

Yanina noticed that her father had lost a lot of weight.

The girl didn't like her dad's black clothes either.

Matveyko did not immediately recognize his father, but soon they "walked".

After the meeting with his family, Andrei sent a touching poem:

I saw my son.

My son forgot me.

Saw a dream.

Grugan counted for years:

- Once... - he began, without taking his eyes off.

- Wait, you monster, count some more -

how many unsung lullabies,

how many songs, how many hugs,

how many smiles, on raised arms,

how many unspoken words "Daddy",

how many travels of Gulliver

on his shoulders under the ceiling through the apartment,

and on the river bicycle rides,

and pebbles not thrown,

how many unshown heels,

and "badu-badu" of a horned goat,

and tirelessly joyful sensations -

that you can hide in the palms at once,

how many snowballs, sled drifts, witches'

holidays, simple,

unrepeatable words "once upon a time"...

Here is a truer calculation for you.

You won't count even half a note in a year

with the whole bunch of grudges!

Andrei Kuznechyk, 11/13/2022

Daughter and son

"Andrei has a perfect, very subtle sense of style"

Andrei Kuznechyk is 44 years old.

He is originally from Vitebsk, came to Minsk as a teenager - entered the Lyceum of BSU.

After that, he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University.

He worked in "Nasha Niva", in the publication "Komsomolskaya Pravda v Belarusi".

He has been an editor at Radio Svaboda for more than 10 years.

"Andrei is a very literate and experienced editor.

And he is very principled, demanding and even "biting" - inaccuracy will not go away with him.

At least he knows the Belarusian language and Belarusian literature very well.

Andrei has a perfect, very subtle sense of style.

And no excuses, that there was no time to check some quote or date, will not be accepted.

Sometimes there was even shame for a sloppy, "untidy" phrase," recalls a journalist who used to work with Kuznechik.

Andrey includes the "editor" even in the colony.

He has a professional habit of always being up to date with all the news.

Therefore, his relatives wrote him many periodicals ("Zvyazdu", "LiM", "Youth", "Evening Minsk"), he reads everything very carefully, analyzes it and writes to his wife what is wrong, where he found inaccuracies or errors.

The avid cyclist who coined the term 'wheelie'

Andrei Kuznechyk is a cyclist, OpenStreetMap volunteer.

Since 2007, he has been running his positive Belarusian-language blog "BelaVela: about bicycles - in Belarusian", in which he promoted cycling.

In the blog, he published a series of posts "A short guide to Minsk bicycle parking lots" and "A short guide to Minsk bicycle paths", gave readers advice, offered to write appeals to local authorities.

He did all this ironically, with a sense of humor.

Andrey coined the word "kolautorkvalka", by which he called all bicycle parking lots that work according to the principle of fixing the wheel.

Andrey Kuznechyk claimed that a bicycle is as complete a form of urban transport as a bus, trolleybus or car, and at the same time, it is the most convenient.

In any weather, he constantly rode his bicycle to work - from Angarskaya to Chalyuskintsev Park.

Andrey's friends say that he is a compassionate person - he helped the Minsk Bicycle Society website a lot, translated materials into Belarusian, and did it on his own initiative.

In addition, Andrey once created a good detailed map of barrier-free bicycle routes, and also laid the routes himself in Google Maps.

Andrey also got his family used to cycling: his wife Alesya and his eldest daughter Yanina.

But he didn't make it to Matvei's younger son, he only carried him in a child's seat.

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