Statkevich condemned the behavior of three former political prisoners. It seems to be Pratasevich, Volha Loika, and Nasta Loika

“Recently, a former member of the Narodnaya Hramada, who is currently outside our country, approached me again with another question: ‘Mikalai Viktaravich, my friends and I are grateful for your thorough and interesting answers to our previous questions. But now we are discussing an issue related to moral matters.

Some materials appearing on certain democratic resources cause misunderstanding. When a resource focused on national culture (likely referring to the “Nasha Niva” website — NN) regularly covers the private life of a scoundrel who bought his freedom at the expense of his colleagues' freedom, even discussing the color of his cohabitant's underwear (likely referring to Raman Pratasevich — NN), when the video channel of this same resource regularly gives a platform to an informer, because of whom her colleagues were imprisoned (likely how Statkevich interprets Volha Loika's participation in the recording of a propaganda film about Tut.by — NN), when a released political prisoner admits to cooperating with her tormentors, praises them, and even states that no one has the right to reproach her for this (likely referring to the interview with human rights activist Nasta Loika — NN). How do you assess all of this?’ — wrote Mikalai Statkevich.

He notes that he has never reproached and will never reproach anyone who signed some "petition" for their freedom, and on the contrary, always rejoices that the prison hell has ended for someone.

“However, human dignity belongs to the person themselves, and if they decide to exchange it for an exit from a difficult situation and think they can live with it, then it is their dignity and their life.

It's a different matter when someone resorts to informing or snitching for their release. I believe this is the greatest baseness — to exchange one's freedom for the freedom of other people. Informers are scoundrels to me, with whom I have no dealings. Those who indulge them, propagate their views or lives, normalize their baseness. Perhaps there is something similar in the souls of these "normalizers" as well.

I also consider snitching among political prisoners unacceptable. It's not true that by reporting "insignificant" information about others to the administration, you don't harm them. You cannot know for what purposes and when the information you reported might be used, when it might be pulled from a personal file to be used for some "operative measure" to make the victim's situation even more unbearable. Attempts to justify one's snitching are understandable — people almost always justify themselves. But public justification of baseness normalizes it, harms the moral health of society, and strengthens the positions of freedom's enemies. Therefore, we must stop the "normalizers" and their "heroes."

As for justifying one's own tormentors, what comes to mind is something I saw in childhood — how a dog licks its owner's boots when he beats it. What must be done to a person to reduce them to the state of that dog?

There are plenty of methods for this. But they require systematic work from a large number of people with significant salaries. Why spend considerable money and time for some person, a political prisoner, even if well-known among their former associates, but by no means an extremist or terrorist, to publicly disgrace themselves?”

Mikalai Statkevich lists three reasons for this:

“1). The more prominent a person is in the media, the broader the impact their normalization of informing, snitching, and self-abasement before their tormentors will have on society.

2). Those who "work" with political prisoners are also people and live among people. No matter how much they deceive themselves, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that they are engaged in a despicable act, or at least a silent question in the eyes of their loved ones. When a broken opponent publicly humiliates themselves, their tormentors feel a sense of superiority — "even if we also lick, at least we are well-fed for it, and we don't lick publicly."

3). Belarusians are very law-abiding; we have no organized crime, no saboteurs or real terrorists. Therefore, numerous security agencies must prove their necessity to their superiors to avoid cuts. Thus, combating dissidents and prisoners becomes their main occupation. And forcing well-known opponents of the authorities to praise their tormentors and the authorities themselves is very pleasing to the latter, which guarantees continued generous funding.

What remains for decent people? In my opinion — to stand with dignity, avoid baseness and the base,” he wrote.

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