Friend from Nesvizh about Melnikava: It's as if she's a different woman, I knew a completely different Anzhelika
Artist, poet, and public figure from Nesvizh, Natallya Bordak, known to many under the pseudonym Natalka Khvoya, told "Saliadarnasts" about the former speaker of the Coordination Council, Anzhelika Melnikava, who mysteriously disappeared from Poland and later, it seems, reappeared in Belarus.
Natallya Bordak
— Some mutual acquaintances don't believe either the current photos or what is being written about Anzhelika now.
In 2020, she organized a bike rally with flags in the park. And then, we were at her mother's house, Anzhelika invited us. The house is nice, beautiful surroundings, we drank tea. It's somehow hard to imagine that she could have been from the special services.
— But two apartments were allegedly bought in her name recently…
— It's all strange, mysterious. If Anzhelika had her own apartment, which was first sealed by the authorities, then returned — then why two more? And why isn't she shown on BT (Belarusian TV)? Show her live already!
She supposedly calls her father, talks to him, but he can't call Anzhelika. A strange story, murky, confusing — in Nesvizh, people are suspicious of all this.
I first saw Anzhelika in late summer 2020 at a rally, when people gathered opposite Radziwill Palace. That's when I spoke to her personally. At that time, Melnikava boldly spoke out against the current regime, about election fraud, about further actions, and much more.
When Anzhelika was convicted, she and her family immediately left. She wrote that an acquaintance had warned her. The wife of a policeman.
I corresponded with Anzhelika for some time. And we were together in the chat "Svobodny Nesvizh" (Free Nesvizh), I still have a screenshot from March 8, 2021: "Let's congratulate our active fighters!"
At one point, Anzhelika even tried to help. In 2020, when I was detained, she wrote about it on Facebook.
After my detention, knowing that we live on my single pension, as my sons were fired, Anzhelika posted several of my paintings on her social media page. Someone even responded and bought one.
— You're talking about rallies and Anzhelika's support. But someone might think that if she had already received an assignment, she behaved accordingly. Even since 2020.
— Well, we also came to Anzhelika's trial, about 20 people gathered. And there was a video, but her page has been cleaned, both videos and photos have been deleted. I don't know since when, she probably deleted them herself. When that trial was postponed because many people came, Anzhelika came out onto the steps and sharply criticized the court's work. She expressed everything she wanted to say to the employees of the authorities. One of whom persistently asked them to disperse.
I remember that Anzhelika's page had photos of her with her mother against the backdrop of the sea. And there was a photo with her daughter, when the youngest went to school in Bialystok, they were so beautiful.
It's unfortunate that the story turned out to be very dirty. It's as if she's a different woman: I knew a completely different Anzhelika — compassionate (at least, she appeared that way), straightforward, active. Honestly, you stand at a crossroads, not knowing — to believe or not?
When Anzhelika was already living in Bialystok, she answered me more coldly. And then she deleted me altogether. Both from the chat and from Telegram, in the spring of 2021.
The former speaker of the Coordination Council, Anzhelika Melnikava, disappeared in March 2025. She was last seen in Sri Lanka, where at the same time Aliaksei Labeyeu, a 32-year-old man with whom Melnikava had a relationship and who, as journalists found out, is an officer of the KGB's Military Counterintelligence Directorate, was also visiting.
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