The duo is set to persuade Tatsiana Karatkevich to withdraw from the elections and convince the OSCE that they should not be recognized as free.
Press conference with participation of Mikalai Statkevich, Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu, Pavel Sevyarynets and Anatol Lyabedzka has attracted a crowd of journalists. Everyone is waiting for Statkevich to announce the promised plan of action during the elections. But Statkevich says much less than Nyaklyayeu, who for first time since leaving the "Tell the Truth" publicly suspects his former associates in collaboration with the authorities.
"What do you mean I did not fight with my former colleagues, with those who are now in 'Tell the Truth'... Listen, what can I alone do against the secret services? I could only do what I did -- leave. And so I did," almost breaks to scream Nyaklyayeu.
He says that he had a plan to become a single candidate from the opposition, and while participating in live televised debates, he planned to withdraw from the election, telling everyone they were rigged. He did not become a single candidate, instead he offered Karatkevich. Nyaklyayeu said he wanted her to take part in the Congress of Democratic Forces. But it all went wrong, and now Tatsiana Karatkevich, in his opinion, is "under the influence" of other people.
Mikalai Statkevich has that same opinion of Karatkevich. He announced the beginning of a campaign of non-recognition of the elections as democratic and free. He says that Karatkevich, perhaps, is a good person, but her involvement in the campaign should not legitimize the election. Allegedly, oppositional nature of Karatkevich is rather formal.
"Maybe she really is a good and kind woman. But the man who is behind her... You know, I would be ashamed. To get publicly disgraced, betray, and then again walk around in white. How can he do that? I do not understand. Nevertheless - he is there. Maybe he was made to do it. Maybe he is on some hook it sits. And now there is allegedly an opposition candidate in the election. There are all the signs of a formal opposition," said Mikalai Statkevich.
All participants of the conference agreed that the West should be prevented from recognizing the election, and image of the opposition must be saved by persuading Karatkevich to withdraw. Nyaklyayeu said that he even wrote a personal letter to his former colleagues and plans to talk to Karatkevich in person:
"I will tell you once again. I am still asking her (Karatkevich - Euroradio) to withdraw. I wrote a personal letter to the campaign "Tell the Truth." If they respond to it, then maybe something will change. If not, if they do not find the moral and political force themselves to rectify the situation, in which they put not only themselves, but the entire democratic opposition, it will be the greatest defeat that the opposition has had for all these years. "
Accusations of collaboration with the secret police are commented by the current head of the "Tell the Truth" and the head of the electoral headquarters of Tatsiana Karatkevich Andrey Dzmitryieu. According to him, Nyaklyayeu worked in the camapign for five years and had never expressed the suspicion that they cooperated with the authorities. According to Dzmitryieu, "Tell the truth" was always ready to support Nyaklyayeu:
"The campaign "Tell the Truth" was ready to support the candidate Nyaklyayeu even if he was not elected a single one. He refused. He then suspected none of us in collaboration. And now, when it became beneficial, everyone vecame an agent."
Dzmitryieu also said that Karatkevich will not withdraw from the election if she is registered as a presidential candidate. "You cannot deprive people of alternatives," he believes.
