Lukashenko's favorite is playing along with the opposition
Former “Miss Belarus” and now member of the Belarusian parliament Maria Vasilevich, who enjoys the special favor of President Alexander Lukashenko, visited today in the hospital people who were injured during the forceful dispersal of opposition protests.
She told the nationalist website Nasha Niva about this, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“We wanted to talk to people who suffered during street protests. See what injuries they have and what help they need. Talk to medical staff. I wanted to find out under what conditions the victims were injured, how the representatives of the security forces behaved. I read that some victims face problems in accepting complaints about the actions of security forces, removing beatings, and conducting forensic examinations,” Vasilevich said.
According to her, she gave all the victims her phone number and promised to help.
“It’s hard to understand that in our country people get hurt like this on the street in peacetime. But we must acknowledge this and must do everything to ensure that this never happens again. What I saw was certainly very impressive. “As a government official, although I may not have the authority to do so, I have apologized to people for the injuries they have suffered,” she said.
Vasilevich responded to the violent dispersal of the protests immediately after they occurred. She called on her Instagram to stop “cruelty and violence against the defenseless” and “stop the riots.”
“Belarus does not deserve such pain,” Vasilevich wrote.
“Nasha Niva” publishes a photograph of the favorite, in which she shows a gesture that has become a symbol of the election campaign of former alternative presidential candidate Viktor Babariko (he is now in jail).
Belarusian media call Vasilevich the “main companion” of the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko. He regularly appears with Vasilevich and his beloved youngest son Nikolai at all significant social events. Lukashenko's press secretary Natalya Eismont said that the country's leader personally prepared the girl to participate in the Miss World competition (where Vasilevich won the Miss Europe title) and even taught her how to chop wood.
Lukashenko awarded her the Prize “For Spiritual Revival” - “for her significant contribution to the development of international cultural cooperation and active charitable activities.”
It is noteworthy that earlier support for oppositionist Veronica Tsepkalo, who fled to Russia, was provided in Moscow by Lukashenko’s former favorite Daria Shmanay.
She is also a former beauty pageant winner who was noticed by the Belarusian president and taken into his protocol service. There were rumors about the special closeness of the beauty and the president. Shmanay went to work at the Belarusian embassy in Moscow after Vasilevich’s rise.
Lukashenko's favorite is playing along with the opposition.