Duma Deputy Boris Nemtsov Angry at Belarus KGB

Minsk refused to institute proceedings on complaints of Union of Rightist Forces leader against actions of Belarus State Security Committee

Yesterday the Minsk municipal court confirmed the decision passed by the Minsk Central Court to decline the complaint of Union of Rightist Forces leader Boris Nemtsov. As Russia’s news agency Rosbalt informs, the court referred to a letter signed by chairman of the Belarus State Security Service; the letter says that no decision was taken to deport leader of the Russian faction Boris Nemtsov.

On October 23, 2002 leader of the Russian faction Union of Rightist Forces Boris Nemtsov was detained in an airport in the Belarus city of Minsk and expelled from the republic. On December 16, 2002 Boris Nemtsov lodged a complaint against “an illegal decision” of the Belarus State Security Committee on deportation of the Union’s leader. When the court of Minsk’s central district refused to institute proceedings in connection with the complaint on December 30, 2002, Boris Nemtsov entered a protest into a higher court instance. The Russian Federation State Duma didn’t support Boris Nemtsov: On November 13, deputies turned down the demand submitted by several deputies on pronouncing of “an official protest” to Minsk.

Attorney Yeugeny Lobanovich said in an interview to journalists that “Belarussian authorities are trying to demonstrate that there was no deportation at all, and Boris Nemtsov was simply included into the list of people to whom entry to Belarus was refused.” The attorney thinks that such norms as deportation and prohibition for entering a country cannot be applied to Russian citizens, as “it is prohibited by the Union Treaty concluded between Russia and Belarus.”

Now the party of Boris Nemtsov is going to register a complaint in a higher court instance in order to get “a clear and well-defined” answer to the question if Boris Nemtsov can visit the territory of Belarus or not. Nemtsov’s attorneys are apprehensive of his future fate: as “the instruction saying that no deportation decision concerning the Union of Right-wing Forces leader was taken at all, is a poor guarantee that nothing of this kind may happen with him next time.”

However, we should keep it in mind that shortly before October 23 when Nemtsov wasn’t allowed to Minsk, a large-scale scandal broke out in the Russia-Belarus Union state. Russia’s newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya published the print of a taped “confidential” conversation between the leader of Union of Rightist Forces with the leader of Belarus’ opposition “United Civic Party of Belarus”, Anatoly Lebedko. In that conversation, Boris Nemtsov spoke impartially about the policy of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and about the meeting of Russia President Vladimir Putin and the Belarus president.

Boris Nemtsov said in that conversation: “He is so oppressed by Putin. Here in Russia, Luka (Alexander Lukashanko is meant) has the image of a clown and kind of an outcast. It is wonderful. However, you should finish him off. You shouldn’t become united with him. Why do you plan to unite with him, with this freak?” To tell the truth, after such statements Boris Nemtsov must be thankful that the Belarus State Security Service only deported him from the country, not more.

Pyotr Bely
PRAVDA.Ru