Artyom Lyabedzka

was detained on March 28 and sentenced to 15 days of administrative arrest for allegedly using obscene language near the Kastrychnytskyi police station.

Then they added another 15 days.

Now Artyom Lyabedzka is accused of "financing extremist activities" - the Investigative Committee called the family a few days ago and named the criminal article.

The lawyer has not yet had time to meet with Artyom.

On Tuesday, relatives gave Lyabedzko Jr. the first transfer in 35 days.

Graduated from the Faculty of International Relations

Anatoly Lyabedzka

, the former chairman of the United Civil Party and now Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya's representative for constitutional reform and cooperation with the parliamentary community,

says that his son is a non-public figure and has never been interested in politics.



Artem Lyabedzka graduated from the Faculty of International Relations of BSU, worked in a private firm.

He is 37 years old.

Together with his wife Veronika, they are raising a 4-year-old daughter Polina.

"Artem was absent from the political public space.

We never had any desire or plans to build a family political dynasty.

In everything else, he is an absolutely positive, law-abiding person, without any faults or extremes," says the father about his son.



When Artyom was studying at BSU at one of the most prestigious faculties - international relations, his father was hinted that it would be better for his son to leave there himself and take the documents.



"Then a good friend of mine, a well-known person in Belarus, approached me and suggested that Artyom, together with Alexander Kazulin's daughter, leave the faculty himself.

It seems that it was when Artyom studied already in the fifth year.

Then there was an "aggravation" associated with me.

Artyom was offered to leave his studies not because he was a bad student - everything was fine with that, he studied well, namely in connection with the fact that his father was engaged in politics.



But I immediately said, without even consulting the family: "If you believe that the son should be responsible for his father, you can exclude him from the university, but we will not write a statement and take away the documents, because there are no grounds for this, he study well".

Because of his father, he could not find a job for a long time

Anatoly Lyabedzka with his son Artyom.

Archive photo

After receiving his diploma, Artem could not get a job for quite some time.

Everywhere they congratulated their father, but they politely refused employment, - continues Anatoly Lyabedzka.



"Like, you yourself know why we can't hire you," - for him, I was not the best "designation" in life.

I don't know how many hundreds of resumes he sent... But then he still got a job in a private firm, and he worked there until his arrest.

He liked the work, the wages were satisfactory.

Then a family appeared, a daughter was born.

Everything was normal.



Now there is no work, no prospects, the family was simply torn in half.

Artyom's daughter is 4 years old: this is the age when the child already understands that the father is not there, she asks her mother more and more often: "Where is our father?" And this is the most difficult question.

The daughter is very attached to her father.



This is the most painful thing that has happened to me, because I feel a personal responsibility, it is my fault, I have to live with it," Anatoly Lyabedzka reflects bitterly.



The father is very proud of his son, remembers how he respected his friends, with what love and respect he treated his grandparents.



"When Artyom went on business trips, he always stopped by my hometown in Triles, at his mother's house in Slutsak.

He never spoke about it, we later found out that he was at the cemetery, laid flowers - in this regard, I was also very happy that my son knew about his roots, who he was.

He was always a support for me," says Anatoly Lyabedzka.

In principle, he did not want to leave Belarus


When Anatoly Lyabedzka was put in prison for the first time, his son Artyom was 10 years old, he cried from despair, from resentment.

When his father was brutally detained on the night of December 19-20, 2010, Artyom shouted into the open window.



"By the way, I did not know that Svaboda interviewed him in 2011, I just now found this publication "My father is not a stone".



He is a non-public person, does not like attention to himself.

And I was very shocked when I read what emotions my son had when I was taken away in 2010.

He opened the window, shouted in despair - these were the emotions of a young man who had an accident," recalls Anatol Lyabedzka.



Artem Lyabedzka did not want to leave the country.

In principle.

Conversations on this topic were held in the Lyabedzka family more than once or twice.

The parents themselves did not want to leave, but they understood that their son could be in danger, and they would take revenge, continues Anatol.



"He categorically stated: "Father, I will be in Belarus.

I will not eat."

We are both so "stubborn" - maybe it's from our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

Artem was convinced that he needed to stay in Belarus and raise his child.

In principle, I did not want to leave Belarus - I emphasize that.

In better times, he had the opportunity to go abroad.

But he didn't do it then, nor now.

I blame myself for this, that I didn't find the words, I didn't find the arguments to convince him," the father admits.



Anatoly Lyabedzka himself did not want to leave either.

In August 2021, he came to the conference, he had two-way tickets abroad - he was sure that he would return to Belarus.



"The only person I'm thankful for that I didn't go to jail is my wife, who simply persuaded me not to go to the conference for two days, but to stay for a few days after it.

I gave her my word, I took these tickets for a longer period.

The last point was the arrest of Uladzimer Matskevich, with whom we were at "Belsat" a couple of days before my trip.

Already abroad, I receive the news that he is in prison, and I understand that my sins (as the "troika" told me: a committee member, a prosecutor and a MUSavets in 2010) will not be enough for one year.

After 2010, they only got sicker.



And my wife Svetlana stayed in Belarus only through my son.

She said: "He doesn't leave, and I can't."

As long as Artyom is there, neither a tank nor anything else will move her.

Our family, I believe, is very solid, strong, we understand each other well," says Anatol.

"This is a gulag that has no shores.

It has spread, it has already covered the whole country"

According to politician Anatoly Lyabedzka, there are no laws, rules, "red flags" for the current Belarusian regime - everything is allowed to him.



"This is a gulag that has no shores.

It spread, covering the whole country.

This is political schizophrenia!

The government wants everyone to be afraid of it, so that people live in fear.

But they themselves experience fear. Only the motivation and roots of fear are completely different.

This is a war, although they are trying to convince us that Belarus is a country where there is no war.

But this is a war against people, against reason, against dignity.



They boast that they can hurt people by blackmailing their relatives, they are such "experts": they know what to press.

As Stanisław Shushkevich once said, "this is the time of servants".



I am in such a situation now that I can neither disappear from the public space, nor give up the convictions for which I fought, sacrificed something.

So I will stay in this niche, I will continue to do what I have been doing.



The only thing is that it will be much harder on the soul.

The main thing in this situation is to remain human.

It's not easy, it's difficult, but this is how we will be different from the creatures who make fun of our relatives and friends," Anatoly Lyabedzka is convinced.

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