Zmitser Dashkevich, a Young Front leader and former political prisoner, is tp pay BYN 220 ($110) fine off. This is the sum at which Vetka foresters valued the damages from two trenches dug by the opposition activists on September 6 on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the founding of Young Front.
The activists of Young Front (Malady front), a Belarusian opposition organization registered in the Czech Republic, decided to celebrate its anniversary by holding a street performance, i.e. digging make-believe trenches. The action took place near the village of Rudnya Spanitska (Vetka district).
The site was chosen for a good reason: it is just 25 km from the Russian border and 75 kilometers from the Russian town of Klintsy (Bryansk region) where the Kremlin started establishing a military base.
Several protocols were drawn upon Zmitser Dashkevich and another activist, Syarhei Palcheuski, because ‘one is not allowed to dig in the forest’.
Dashkevich called the foresters’ claim a ‘daylight robbery’, but paid the fine off.
