Leanid Kulakou: Only Street Protests Cause Fracture

Minsk taxi driverLeanid Kulakou is called the Patriot. 

Kulakou is an interesting personality. He is an activist of the European Belarus takes part in protest pickets and opposition actions and is often subject to administrative arrests. And Leanid notes he was not interested in politics unless 50 years old. Nasha Niva reports.

Kulakou was born in Minsk: He became an orphan in 5 years. After an orphanage he served as a ship's master in the navy, Severomorsk. During his mini-break he met his future wife. There was a wedding, and he finished his service being married.

Then he returned to Belarus He says he wanted to stay in Belarus, not in Murmansk.

His daughter was born in 1989.

"I missed elections in 1994. I was not interested in the president and the prime minister. I was absolutely apolitical in the 90s, Kulakou says. - I worked as the executive director in the technical export organization: MAZ, MTZ. We made the work of plants easier. But in 2006 private firms were denied to be business agents. Our business was destroyed. I became a taxi driver."

And he began to understand that something was wrong with the country.

"From a domestic perspective I was more or less satisfied. I earned enough. But I began to understand the power must be changed. One person can be in power for so long. Today I call him Bulbashbashi by analogy with Turkmenbashi, Leanid laughs.

In 2006 Kulakou voted for Kazulin, the most assertive candidate.

"After the elections Kazulin called to support those taken to the Akhrestsina. I joined the action. People were severely dispersed. I saw it with my own eyes. [Dispersed march to the detention centre on Freedom Day in March 25, 2006. Kazulin himself was detained and put in the pretrial detention centre - Ed.]. Then it challenged mind," Kulakou recalls.

On December 19, 2010 voted for Sannikau, Kulakou headed to the Square. He was in the vanguard and was beaten up by policemen. According to him, he lost consciousness and regain it only in the ambulance car. He was taken into by indifferent people. In a waiting room he said he'd been beaten up by the police. Doctors must inform about such cases. The police arrived and took him away, but his health state deteriorated and he did not understand what they wanted. Soon they let him go.

"A few days later I saw the news on TV. Those involved in the Square were subject to imprisonment. Then I had a phone call and asked to come to the police. I thought it was the end. I collected warm clothes, biscuits, onion, then went. I did not warn my wife", Kulakou says.

After a long interrogation he was released.

"In January 2011 I accidentally learned about the picket in support of those detained in the Square near the KGB building. I decided to go. I was sorry for persons arrested for no reason, Kulakou tells. - I came. I knew no one. First I was with journalists. I thought it was the picket. Then I saw a group of people with portraits of political prisoners. I approached and asked the portrait of Sannikau. They gave it to me and I held it.

Soon picket-men were detained. Leanid spent a day behind bars with Maksim Viniarski, activist of the European Belarus, was there. They got acquainted. Then there was a short trial.

"The judge told me: "Here you are an accidental person."

I replied: "I feel like I will not," Kulakou laughs.

He was fined. When I came back home, my wife thought I spent the night at my lover's, not in the police. When she learned it was true, she asked: "So what? What have you done?"

Since 2010 Leanid has been the activist of the civil campaign "European Belarus": He was invited to opposition, but he refused.

"I vote for Sannikau. I considered it a betrayal. It's wrong," he says.

At the forthcoming elections Kulakou will be an observer. But he is not going to vote. In addition, he notes that current candidates are not worth taking the streets for.

He believes that only when people show their discontent, the situation will change.

"Otherwise, the authority will allow doing nothing. People must peacefully take the streets, Kulakou believes. - Workers must stand to stop plants and factories. Street protests can change something."