Lukashenko's former favorite warmed up his opponent in Moscow
The headquarters of the unregistered presidential candidate of Belarus Valery Tsepkalo confirmed today the information that the politician’s wife is in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports. Tsepkalo himself fled to Russia more eagerly.
Information about Veronica’s escape was disseminated by state media, but the opposition denied it. Today her action is justified by the threat of criminal proceedings.
Thus, the women's opposition triumvirate, which had conducted a noisy election campaign, collapsed. Housewife candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, in addition to Tsepkalo, was supported by the head of headquarters of another unregistered candidate, Viktor Babariko, who is in a pre-trial detention center.
There is one piquant detail in the story of Vernika Tsepkalo, who calmly voted in Moscow today. In the Russian capital, she is patronized by Daria Shmanay, a former winner of a beauty contest, who was noticed and taken into his protocol service by President Alexander Lukashenko. There were rumors about the special closeness of the beauty and the president. At the beginning of the year, Shmanay went to work in Moscow through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her departure coincided with the rise of a new favorite - also the winner of a beauty contest, Maria Vasilevich. She is already a member of the Belarusian parliament and a TV presenter.
Today Alexander Lukashenko assured journalists that he intends to protect the safety of opposition leaders in every possible way.
“I have a question, why did some people run? That's how they promoted it. No one was going to detain them. You understand, no pressure is beneficial to me, because it is all harmful. I can't even tell you what's going on around there. If something happens to these headquarters, who will be responsible for it. I will answer. Therefore, I want to live until tomorrow morning without a single voice falling from their heads. What kind of people are you if you don’t understand this,” Lukashenko said.
It is worth noting that he uttered approximately the same text when the campaign to collect signatures from Viktor Babariko was going on. However, a few weeks after the president’s assurances, this ex-banker was arrested along with his son.
And today we cannot say that the opposition is completely safe. Eight people have already been detained at Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters, led by Maria Moroz, who led the campaign. Yesterday Maria Kolesnikova was detained “by mistake”. True, she was immediately released.
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