Into The Ice Hole In A White Shroud

• Irina Khalip
• 23.01.2026, 23:44

Bad news for Rygorich

Rygorich, I have some bad news for you. But someone has to tell you the truth someday. Well, listen up: you're surrounded by enemies. Real, vicious enemies, looking to make a nuisance of themselves from around corners. You're mistaken if you just thought they were zmagars, fugitives, or bchbshniks. Not at all. The above-mentioned are the very Belarusians who do not hide their attitude to you, do not deceive and do not flatter. They are honest opponents. And the enemies are those who surround you.

Would those who treat you well and are your comrades-in-arms be able to set you up so cruelly, making a mockery of you? Only enemies in a single impulse and conspiracy could have dressed you up with all your centimeters of live weight in a white shirt and persuaded you to plunge into an ice hole. No, if they said: "Rygorych, put on a white shroud and let the people laugh" - then they are not enemies, then they are honest helpers and like-minded people. But they didn't say that. They must have woven lace about traditional values, respect for the feelings of believers, closeness to the people - something clearly from this range. So they are enemies after all.

They are the enemies who allow the cameras to get closer and record weakness, who invent participation in such shameful events where age, weight, and ill-health are not just highlighted, but snatched out of the picture as if by a giant spotlight. Putting Rygorych to chop wood when his hands can no longer hold an axe is a diversion. To distribute a video in propaganda channels, where everyone is walking down the stairs, and exhausted Rygorych is going up the elevator, is also a diversion. Rolling an already immobile torso out onto the ice to be knocked off his feet by a hockey player who accidentally moved his shoulder is even more of a diversion. And the white thin shirt for dipping in the ice-hole is an anti-Lukashenko conspiracy. And these people haven't been executed yet? You have also lost your vigilance, Rygorych, and not only your health.

I have no doubt that it is they, the lurking enemies, who whisper after all the nonsense uttered in public that it was wonderful, clever and strategically correct. He lied to the world that he stopped eating sausage at night - "you're a genius, Rygorych". He admitted that he demanded that Cole give him an injection for obesity - "how subtle, worthy of a wise politician and experienced strategist, Rygorych". He demanded to turn Pripyat back - "that's so brave and in the spirit of the time, Rygorych". He was indignant that Belarusians drink coffee at gas stations - "how fatherly it is, what sincere care for the people, Rygorych.

Enemies are everywhere - in the reception, in the press service, in the administration, in the security service, in ministries and agencies, in the Interior Ministry and the KGB. By the way, the peculiarity of enemies is that they are not thrown to Earth by aliens. They come from here, lived and studied here, before getting into the immediate environment with enemy targets. So their former environment hasn't gone anywhere. Every enemy who is in high offices still has childhood friends, neighbors, drinking buddies, companions for baths. With them you can be yourself and say what you think, not rehearsed enemy speeches.

But Belarus is a small country. Each such companion and neighbor has its own neighbor. And information spreads very quickly throughout the country and even beyond its borders. So, lately, those very enemies from the inner circle, finding themselves among their acquaintances from normal life, honestly say: "Yes, we all buried him long ago. How long does he have left there?... Long ago, the cops and the State Security Service divided up all the portfolios. There Vitya, Dima and Kolya in the new reality are not foreseen at all, they will have to run away".

So, Rygorych, there is only one way out: hide in the bunker and do not shine. And take your enemies with you, so that they would not be able to meet with drinking buddies and spread information about the deplorable state of the leader. It is necessary to sever all ties with the outside world, so that not a single word, not a single photo, not a single sound would not go outside the bunker. And the food can be delivered by drone. But a drone is not a good idea. Hell knows where it'll come from and what it'll deliver.

Irina Khalip, specially for Charter97.org