Dozens of Belarusians came to the court that morning, a functional building in the south of the capital Minsk.

You want to support two defendants, Marija Kolesnikowa and Maxim Snak, whose verdict will be announced here.

For the crowd, the two heroes are the drivers of the Belarusian awakening last year and harbingers of a better future.

Friedrich Schmidt

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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Kolesnikova's and Snaks' comrades-in-arms have also come, and they must expect to join the more than 650 political prisoners in the country at any time. But also supporters like two middle-aged women with flowers in their hands, daisies. It was given to them by Alexandr Kolesnikow, the defendant's father, who has their watchful, friendly look; This is how he did it on every negotiation day of the process that began a good month ago, in thanks for the solidarity of the women.

Even waiting in court is dangerous in Belarus.

Two of the women report how during the trial a girl distributed leaflets with the inscription “We will drink Prosecco together”, something Maria Kolesnikova appreciates.

The girl was arrested for 14 days.

“But coming here is the least we can do,” says one of the women.

“If we were allowed to assemble freely, everything would be full here,” says her companion.

"Indictment is reminiscent of Hollywood script"

Hardly anybody knows what happened in the trial against Kolesnikova and Snak. The two members of the Coordination Council of Opponents of the ruler Alexandr Lukashenko were charged with appeals against national security, a conspiracy to seize power and the establishment and management of an extremist organization. But the process was secret, and those involved have to be silent. A lawyer said the indictment reminded him of a Hollywood script that ended up saying, "Based on real events." The regime had to reverse the events of summer 2020 in order to fit into its script.

Kolesnikova and Snak worked for Viktor Babariko, the presidential candidate banned by the regime who would have had the best chance of defeating Lukashenko in real elections. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison on another matter in July. Babariko and his colleagues are interested in peaceful change, they reject violence. "As someone who calls for compromises and dialogue, I am against sanctions," said Kolesnikova even at the height of the protests after the fraudulent elections in August 2020 of the FAZ that the trial of the 39-year-old musician and cultural manager and the 40-year-old old lawyer Snak, which took place in camera, illustrates the danger that the regime attaches to the two: they should not be given a stage. The regime learned what happens when, in particular, Kolesnikova appears:It excites, inspires, and carries you away.

Therefore, the supposedly public pronouncement of the verdict turns into a farce: Propaganda media people of the regime are granted access, plus Russian state agencies, but no independent media and no Western diplomats. The latter are themselves targets of the staging and are constantly filmed. One Lukashenko claqueur is particularly interested in the representative of the EU, whose ambassador recently had to leave Belarus. The state television man asks why the EU is covering terrorists, “why don't you answer, you are in favor of the free speech!” Others film the crowd in which many turn away in order not to be bothered later. The propagandists only avoid the defendants' fathers; perhaps because pictures of older men being killed for their children would be counterproductive for the regime's purposes.