A court in Moscow sentenced journalist Alyaksandr Neuzorov to eight years in prison in absentia.

According to the version of the investigation, in March 2022, Nevzorov published "knowingly false information" on social networks about the deliberate shelling by Russian soldiers of the maternity hospital in Mariupol and the killing of civilians in Buchi.

- The prosecutor's office demanded 9 years for you, and the court gave 8 years.

How do you assess it yourself, why did you regret it?

- Understand, this is a show and you perfectly understand that these sentences are not handed down by the court on the basis of case materials or expertise.

They receive a wish from the Kremlin and they fulfill it.

They may even perform with a certain theatrical skill and flair.

Discussing the term has no meaning at all.

- In Belarus, opponents of the authorities are also tried in absentia.

There were cases when lawyers did not even want to talk to clients, and blocked them in messengers.

As a result, the participants in the case did not know the details of the trial against them.

How does it happen in Russia?

Have you tried participating in this process?

- No, I didn't try.

But it must be said that the process did not try to involve me, because I was not asked a single question.

I've never been approached by anyone, I haven't received a single text message, despite the fact that I'm quite a public person and very easy to find.

I have many addresses and you can write to any of them and upload.

There was an absolutely unexpected lawyer, appointed to me without my knowledge, Fedaseeva, a duty lawyer, a public lawyer.

She had to shake her head and agree with everything.

And so she played them music.

She stated that this is nonsense and lawlessness, that this is rudeness, that this is a mockery of justice.

She turned out to be a fighter and classy.

I have no personal contact with her, but through all my broadcasts I ask her not to risk herself and not to protect me like this.

"Lukashenka hates Putin more than intelligent people of Russia hate him.

Hate and fear"

- You were tried for the so-called fakes about the Russian army.

It will soon be a year since the full-scale invasion of this army into Ukraine began.

In your opinion, is the Russian army today closer to the goals set by Putin, or further?

- I think that Putin himself does not know his goals.

He just has no way out now.

He, so-called, his old suit of the international trade world, an oil and gas speculator, a cunning blackmailer, Ivanushka the fool, he took off this suit with bells and put on a war suit.

If this war suddenly stops at some point, he will be left in front of the whole world very naked and pitiable.

He, of course, will try to never allow this to happen and will continue the war.

Neither a million nor two million dead people will embarrass him.

It is absolutely pointless to rely on Putin's common sense.

And as for the war, you can see very well yourself that the only thing that the potential and power of the Russian army is enough for is to starve with toothless jaws on the outskirts of Bakhmut and talk about taking two or three barns.

And we understand that

that they have such an opportunity only because Zaluzhny planned something.

And we know that if Zaluzhny has something in mind, then his brains will fly over the coals.

- For a year now, both Belarusians and Ukrainians have been afraid of the Belarusian army joining the Russian war against Ukraine.

And this in general, does Putin still need it?

To involve Lukashenka in this way?

- I don't know, I don't know.

Lukashenko is like Rorschach blots.

These specks can be seen and evaluated in their combinations and in their peculiar layers of absolutely any patterns.

Lukashenko, not surprisingly, in my opinion hates Putin more than the intelligent people of Russia hate him.

Hate and fear.

And at the same time, Lukashenka understands that it is Putin who has wires, keys, needles to the life of Alexander Ryhoravich.

After all, he would not have been able to hold out for even a second, and he would not have been able to defeat even such a quiet and peaceful revolution, which was in Belarus, if it were not for Putin.

"A Russian is almost always in search of grief, suffering, because Russian culture is so vile and toxic"

— In your opinion, should Lukashenka answer in the future process, conditional Hague, the same way as Putin?

- I think so.

In addition to what he did by providing airfields and resources for the war, Lukashenka has something to answer for those events.

I joked very prophetically recently, you must have seen with what joy Lukashenka was received in Zimbabwe.

You had to see it.

Do you know what the matter is?

Even Lukashenka's press service did not understand, because they receive leaders there and sometimes quite solid representatives of solid countries fly there.

But such enthusiasm has never been observed at the airport.

The fact is that among the main nationalities that inhabit Zimbabwe, there is a completely official, state-level, vampire cult, which is even taught in schools.

Zimbabwe is the only country in the world where the existence of vampires is officially recognized and not questioned.

Literally a day before Alexander Ryhorovich's visit, there was a message on the local radio that

that one of the biggest vampires of mankind, who drank the blood of an entire country (they couldn't pronounce the word Belarus and replaced it with something), is coming to Zimbabwe.

That is why there was such delight and joy.

- At the beginning of the war, many people said that when the first "funerals" and coffins go to Russia, people's mood will change.

How has it changed over a year and tens of thousands killed?

- We cannot say anything concrete.

We understand that sociology is stifled in Russia and that the Presidential Administration draws any numbers with its dead hand.

We understand that everything that is happening in Russia now does not lend itself to any accounting and statistics, real statistics.

We can assume from some indirect signs that yes, there may be some mood changes, but they are not radical.

Well, there are "burial houses", that there are 120-130-180 thousand people.

Remember the years 1937-1939.

Then everyone knew everything.

And then the number was not hundreds of thousands, but millions of people.

Nevertheless, these millions obediently and submissively, tying Kant's volume, a set of crackers and a favorite coaster, went to the Gulag and showed others the way.

Do not forget that a Russian is almost always in search of grief, suffering, because such is the Russian culture,

which always presented grief and suffering as the meaning of life.

Such is the vile and toxic culture.

It is not for nothing that a gathering of morons called the State Duma and all government organizations are "drowning" so much for this culture.

We understand that they need this culture, that they have found in this culture a way to rule and tame the people.

"We understand that it is not the Belarusians who are bombing"

- Today in Belarus people are imprisoned for the colors of the national flag, for T-shirts with patriotic inscriptions, and for the Belarusian language.

You know the psychology of the Russian government well.

Do you think Putin needs this and Lukashenka is serving him, understanding the request.

Or the reason is different?

- You never noticed that there are two terms: convergence and divergence.

One of them means the divergence of biological signs, and the other means the convergence of signs.

And we see that in completely different organisms, different animals, which find themselves in approximately the same environment, convergence of these signs occurs.

And mammals acquire external and contour similarities, for example, with fish, as it happened with many marine mammals.

And I think that any dictatorship gives birth to approximately the same management methods and uses absolutely identical instruments.

There is a convergence of signs, it would seem, in such different structures.

"Pressure with Lukashenko comforts Putin to some extent"

- Various divisions of Belarusians are fighting in Ukraine, the most famous being the Kalinovsky Regiment.

Will these people be able to wash away the shame from Belarus that missiles were sent to Ukraine from Belarus?

- Belarusians have no shame.

We understand that it is not the Belarusians who are bombing.

We understand that Belarusians are held by the throat with an iron hand, not even by the throat, but by the glans.

Not even for looks, but literally for the heart.

This dictator has no mercy for Belarus.

To be honest, I don't see the fault of Belarusians in anything, except that Belarusians are very intelligently trying to make revolutions.

This is already a serious mistake.

— Alexander Hlebavich, why does Putin still need Belarus at all?

- It is necessary, because he is completely alone.

Apart from Zimbabwe, Eritrea, he didn't even have any acquaintances left.

He needs some presidential international entourage, a surrogate for international relations.

The pressure with Lukashenka comforts him to some extent.

And he needs a plus, because he is counting on the resources of Belarus, on the possibilities of Belarus, which were demonstrated during the victory over the Belarusian revolution.

He understands that the moment will come when every moron, every police officer, will be needed.

• Dmitry Gurnevich

  Radio Svaboda journalist

  hurnievicd@rferl.org

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