We talk with a leading figure of the Belarusian democratic movement about returning to freedom and how to continue dealing with president Lukashenko.
When I last interviewed you, it was remotely, through an intermediary, and you were in prison. When I asked how you would describe your physical and mental state, you wrote back that reading, sport and red lipstick were especially helpful to you. You are wearing it now, too, in freedom. Can you imagine yourself without it?
Of course. I was without it, for example, when I was in complete prison isolation for a long time. At that time, I was not only without lipstick and unable even to comb my hair, but I was also without phone calls and letters from my family, without any possibility of seeing my loved ones. It was a time when I knew absolutely nothing about them, and likewise they knew nothing about me.
How did you pass the long hours in prison?
I read a lot. Five books a week. In freedom I no longer have time for that, there are many other duties here.
