On 12 August, 2000, the nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk exploded and sank in the Barents Sea during an exercise. Onboard there were 118 crew members: officers, warrant officers, sailors and civilian specialists. All died.

Could the Kursk tragedy result from the deplorable state of the Russian fleet? It could. Could bad weather prevent the rescue operation? It could. Was it possible to allow British and Norwegian rescuers, who possessed special deep-sea equipment we did not have, into the area of ​​the sinking? We were obliged to. Was it possible to save the 23 sailors who survived in the 9th compartment? It is unknown.

But the rescuers were not allowed. People were not saved.

Why? Because the modern Russian state is absolutely does not care about people. Much more important is imperialism, the struggle with the West, international intrigues, false prestige and inadequate ambitions.

Then, in August 2000, it became clear: human life means nothing for the newly elected president. Four weeks later, in an interview with CNN, when asked what happened to the submarine, Putin said, “It sank”.

After that, there were many similar situations.

Today, the Russian authorities are providing tacit support for the unprecedented insolence of violence that is taking place in Belarus: the most severe beatings and mockery of the citizens of the Republic, and, at the same time, Russian journalists. The Kremlin is in solidarity with criminal Lukashenko, who, latching onto his chair is waging a war against his own people. Having openly rigged elections, imprisoning and squeezing his opponents out of the country, ordering armed riot police to attack unarmed civilians, plunging the country into a bottomless lie, Lukashenko finally lost his legitimacy and became, in fact, an international criminal, like his henchmen. They will all be held accountable.

Putin has always supported and continues to support Lukashenko. Without this support, the Belarusian liar and demagogue would have never dared to commit such atrocities. He would have never dared to beat and kidnap Russian citizens and Russian journalists in Belarus. The Kremlin does not care about its citizens. Moscow did not defend either Russian journalists or even its own militants from a private military company arrested by the Belarusian security forces. Human lives and destinies mean nothing to them.

The tacit agreement of the Russian authorities with the atrocities of the security forces in Minsk means that they are ready to arrange a similar thing in Russia. For the first time this was demonstrated back in 1999, when the State Duma of the Russian Federation, with a drool of emotion, gave the tribune to Lukashenko, already then an illegal usurper of power in Belarus, posing as the president. Even then, this was a sign of the desire for the irremovability of power in Russia, which was eventually legalised on 1 July, 2020.

20 years have passed since the catastrophe with the Kursk submarine. The tragedy in the Barents Sea is associated with today’s events in Minsk by autocracy, lies and cynical indifference to human life. Belarus is another warning to Russia about the future.

I express my solidarity with the Belarusian people in their strive for freedom. We will remember the criminal actions of the authorities in the Republic of Belarus in August 2020 forever.