Gray Cat Blogger: Guys, Be Cheerful, You're Out There!

• 18.10.2025, 22:01

The sanctions are working just fine.

Blogger Dmitry Kozlov "Gray Cat" spent more than five years in Lukashenko's prison and was deported to Lithuania on September 11, 2025.

In an interview with "Ordinary Morning" he spoke about what led him into politics and helped him keep his faith behind bars. The website Charter97.org quotes excerpts from the conversation.

- Why did you get involved in politics?

- I didn't get into politics, politics got into me. The so-called decree on idleness was the start. In fact, it gave birth to the Belarusian political blogosphere. After that, a lot of channels appeared, the topic started to be discussed, bloggers started to go to events, they got acquainted with each other very quickly. Then it was used by the system that there was allegedly some kind of conspiracy organized by Washington and Brussels.

- Prepared, it turns out, together with other bloggers. Are you the curators, the puppeteers after all?

- No, not exactly. We were talking about the real problems in Belarus. Just as now, for example, we are talking about real problems that the society should pay attention to: the whereabouts of Statkevich, stopping repressions. Because everyone talks about the fact that 50 political prisoners have been "released", but no one talks about the fact that 100 more have been imprisoned. It was the same then. We were talking about real problems in the country.

- We are now talking with a smile about the fact that you spent 5 years and 3 months in this hell...

- And some still do!

- And some still do, yes, and this is all we have, you see, the norm now. You, by the way, I read somewhere, you lost 30 pounds. Is that true?

- Yes, look, there is this video, photos after my release, when I was released on the 11th. It's not the worst version of what I looked like. I looked at it from the outside and I was surprised. I felt pretty normal. You should have looked at me a year ago, in September 2024, when I was in the detention center during the off-season, when I was promoted under Article 411, that's when I was at the "peak" of my physical form. Well, that's in quotes, of course.

- I understand that the hardest thing is moral pressure?

- Fortunately, I was not subjected to "physical" pressure, but moral pressure is even the term itself, you know? You don't have to do anything, just give a person, let's say, 20 years. And even if you don't serve them, they just tell you suddenly that you have 20 years to serve, and you've already been under investigation for a year. But let's put ourselves on a positive note. I don't want to talk about whether it was bad there. We need to talk about what to do now. Look at me. I've been through it all. Do I look like a sad, depressed, depressed person?

- We look worse.

- I don't want to live anymore? No, on the contrary, everything is fine. I've been through it, and I say so, and you were out here. Guys, be cheerful. Everything will be fine, everything will be fine!

- What do you suggest? I want to follow you already.

- I'm a political blogger, not a politician. The difference is that politicians create programs, they guide someone, and a political blogger tells about them, shows them, that is, they are my object of work.

- Where does your optimism come from?

- We live in a good time, a time of big changes, big decisions. Crises, as some people say, are always times of opportunity. Now we are living in a time of opportunity, a time when big changes can come to the country. Look at what is happening. Do you think Lukashenko released political prisoners out of some kindness of heart? Or because he stopped feeling threatened by them? No. It was the economy that got him in trouble in the first place. There's no money. And he's trying to make some kind of deal to loosen the screws a little bit. Talk about "sanctions don't work." Sanctions are working just fine. And the fact that they worked is what got us here. How many years did he put up with it? He didn't want to release anyone.

They started releasing people in August 2024, after the amnesty. 20 or 30 people who wrote a petition for clemency. None of the status, famous people.

Now Lukashenko decided to take advantage of the weakness and fragmentation of the West and just to get all sanctions lifted in exchange for releasing some 200-300 people. It is necessary to build the whole system of relations and interaction with him in such a way that it would not be possible, so to speak, to "blunder". Because he has released 50 people, he'll release another 50, lift sanctions, let's say, against Belaruskali, and then he won't release anyone else. He will say: I don't need any more, I've had enough, now I can more or less connect debit and credit, let the rest sit until the end and rot.

It's still necessary to somehow, negotiating with him, to solve the issue of complete suspension of repression, the possibility of returning people to their homeland and guarantees of security or the possibility of choice. Otherwise, they just threw out a few people on some incomprehensible lists. And then what? And they put a hundred new people in jail on top of that. It's fine, even one person who was released is fine, because it's a person's fate, it's not numbers on paper, but I don't want to be selfish. We're not selfish, we want everybody to experience it, we want everybody to get out. So we don't have to limit ourselves to 50 people. Thousands of others, two or three thousand unknowns who are not on the lists - will they stay there forever? Are they going to be given more time?

- You see what is happening. You are talking about stopping repressions completely so that there is a possibility to return. Let's call things by their proper names. This is impossible as long as Lukashenko is alive.

- It depends on how you put the question. If not a complete cessation of repressions, then at least, at least, to implement it in stages. At least, for example, to agree to release unconditionally all the people on this list. Right now. And then talk about sanctions. We can build this dialog in different ways. Look at the current situation. We agreed on the release of 52 people. They were released, but they were forcibly deported against the will of the majority. And one person, Nikolai Statkevich, refused to be deported.

For this he was returned to the punitive system, we don't even know where he is now. In other words, the deal didn't go through. But nobody told Lukashenko for some reason that, "buddy, you didn't fulfill your conditions, and now we won't do it either. Let us put sanctions back on Belavia parts, and you won't buy anything for your airplanes until Nikolai Statkevich is released and safe.