Dzmitryyeu: We had a plan of negotiations. Statkevich wanted assault
One of the leaders of Tell the Truth, Andrei Dzmitryyeu, has decided to publicly respond to Uladzimir Nyaklyeyu who accused him of cooperation with KGB. Who ordered to change the itinerary of Nyaklyayeu’s and Statkevich’s columns at the Square-2010, why wasn’t the Square plan good and who bears responsibility for the people who responded to their call and came to the Square? Andrei Dzmitryyeu has answered these and other questions in an interview with Euroradio.
Listen to the full interview:
Best quotations
There is no KGB supervisor telling me what to do, where to go and what position to stick to. But Nyaklyayeu has been stating the opposite for two years. The situation is complicated: I cannot sue him because we all know what our courts are like and I cannot beat him for lying because his is an elderly man.
It would be too romantic to claim that we have no connection with the special services - we all know what country we live in. But nobody is telling us what to do and the Tell the Truth administration is not subdued to KGB.
Most likely, there are agents in Tell the Truth but we are not doing anything that would make us fear the authorities.
I see no sense in revealing the cost of our presidential cmapign-2010. I can only say that a serious presidential campaign costs at least 5 million dollars in Belarus.
Nyaklyayeu and Statkevich’s itinerary could not have changed the result and the essence of the Square – the very plan of the Square was half-baked. It was too romantic and naïve.
The decision to change the itinerary of loudspeaker equipment delivery was made by the headquarters. It was done to protect the equipment by means of publicity.
We considered Statkevich a threat to the Square. He was brought to Nyaklyayeu’s headquarters and the itinerary of his arrival to the Square was changed that way. It was done so that we could control him.
We had a plan of negotiations with the authorities. Statkevich wanted an assault. We decided that if Statkevich started urging people to begin an assault, we would turn off his loudspeaker and let Nyaklyayeu speak instead so that he would convince the present to refrain from the assault.
I blame myself for our plan of the Square. It was a good game scenario but it was bad for real politics. The fairy tale ended when they put us facedown in snow in Kallektarnaya Street. We assessed the situation inadequately and that is why our plan was not adequate.
Everyone came to the Square for their families and everyone made their own decision. But I also bear responsibility for what happened to them there too. Tell the Truth did not think it over well enough and was unable to protect the people.
We have analyzed our mistakes and are more careful now.
The opposition is doing well without me. They keep quarrelling and are unable to choose a single candidate. If they say that I am to blame for it, they might better quit politics because it is too easy to beat them.
Nobody followed Nyaklyayeu when he left Tell the Truth. It means that I am devoted to the team and the team is devoted to me as a leader. Nyaklayeu wanted his own ‘fan club’ instead of a team.
Photo: Ales Piletski
