CURRENTTIME — broadcast
20260920 113000 UTC
257 transcript segments
Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking
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Machine transcription. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a verbatim quotation record.

[00:00:00] And I spent half a year there.
[00:00:20] Get inside,
[00:00:21] bitch.
[00:00:33] a huge number of people in small
[00:00:35] areas,
[00:00:43] the sun practically never enters, because
[00:00:47] there are metallic bars
[00:00:49] on the windows, like blinds, which essentially
[00:00:53] don't allow light through, only give a little light for
[00:00:57] existence and...
[00:01:12] I'm a Belarusian blogger, "Narodny Reporter" channel,
[00:01:15] I was Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's
[00:01:18] press secretary, and before the elections I was
[00:01:21] arrested. It's very difficult
[00:01:24] to explain what Volodarka is, well, firstly, it's a building from 1825,
[00:01:28] and secondly, it hasn't been renovated
[00:01:31] for a long time. All the walls are shabby,
[00:01:35] dirty, black. I was initially in a very small cell
[00:01:38] for two people, meaning this cell is about 2x2 meters.
[00:01:42] I spent 3 months there, then after
[00:01:45] 3 months I was transferred to a larger cell,
[00:01:49] there were 12 people there, plus there were a lot of cockroaches, meaning they were
[00:01:52] everywhere. You couldn't leave food on
[00:01:56] the table, they were like...
[00:02:30] they fed us in such a way that we couldn't die.
[00:02:44] Forget about fruits and vegetables.
[00:02:48] Do you know what scurvy is?
[00:02:50] No, we have no idea. Your teeth
[00:02:53] will fall out, your wounds won't heal, you'll
[00:02:57] weaken.
[00:03:03] It's like there's a presumption of innocence, you're
[00:03:06] not guilty yet, by presumption, but you're already
[00:03:10] spending your time in
[00:03:12] such a, truly very harmful
[00:03:16] place for health and psyche.
[00:03:17] If a person ends up in a pre-trial detention center,
[00:03:25] most likely he, he will be
[00:03:27] recognized. recognized.
[00:04:00] freedom in an open type colony, I was given
[00:04:04] 2 years of chemistry,
[00:04:08] it is a relic of the Soviet Union.
[00:04:12] There we had to manually, essentially, like in the 19th century
[00:04:15] or in the early 20th century,
[00:04:18] serve these animals, which would then be
[00:04:21] sent to the
[00:04:23] meat processing plant.
[00:04:26] that phones are allowed in chemistry.
[00:05:42] I walked out, well, at first, the first
[00:05:46] hour was fine
[00:05:48] to walk, the second hour was difficult
[00:05:52] to walk, the Belovezha Forest
[00:05:54] began, the third hour was already
[00:05:57] difficult, and I arrived after the taps, this
[00:06:01] was at 10
[00:06:05] o'clock
[00:06:05] approximately.
[00:06:51] This is what the clothes look like
[00:06:55] in which people are held in the colony in
[00:06:58] Shizo.
[00:07:01] The colony administration made a big mistake by releasing
[00:07:05] us, political prisoners, to freedom
[00:07:08] in such attire. But now the world can see...
[00:08:12] a little bit of the cells, they weren't
[00:08:14] stung,
[00:08:18] 3 years, I had to spend in a
[00:08:21] Belarusian colony.
[00:08:25] I was very, very pleased when I was in
[00:08:28] the colony and my mom showed me that a
[00:08:32] girl had drawn a flag with the names of all the
[00:08:35] political prisoners, and I went to my
[00:08:38] girls in the colony, everyone was so happy that in fact...
[00:10:15] I already had a yellow tag on me, all political prisoners walk with a
[00:10:19] yellow tag, this is the tenth registration, extremism
[00:10:22] and other destructive activity.
[00:10:55] work in the colony, they get a salary, but
[00:10:58] these payments are quite ridiculous, like a dollar or two a
[00:11:02] month. My salary was a
[00:11:03] month, I received 80
[00:11:07] kopecks. They explained
[00:11:10] it by saying that what we earn goes towards our
[00:11:14] upkeep.
[00:11:17] you are obliged to fulfill the norm, if not, violation, salary goes to pay
[00:11:20] bills, water, electricity, food, you are not
[00:11:24] living here for... free:
[00:11:27] I studied at the Academy of Arts, in the design
[00:11:31] faculty. In 2020, we
[00:11:33] started going to student protests. The KGB
[00:11:37] detained us. We were given 2 and a half
[00:11:40] years. There are only two women's
[00:11:43] colonies. The colony as a whole
[00:11:46] has about 2,000 prisoners.
[00:11:49] In each detachment, at least a third
[00:11:53] of the prisoners who... work for operational
[00:11:57] officers.
[00:12:07] there are some who
[00:12:10] still remain human during their
[00:12:13] stay, and there are those who immediately start
[00:12:16] working for the staff
[00:12:19] from the start. When I got to the colony, we found out
[00:12:22] that there's someone watching over every political prisoner
[00:12:26] in the detachment.
[00:12:30] Be careful what you say in the barracks. A separate
[00:12:34] prisoner watches over every political prisoner, and he
[00:12:37] reports everything to the guards.
[00:12:39] He collects all information that might somehow pertain to any
[00:12:43] violations. Ivanovna gave a cigarette at 4
[00:12:46] PM on Thursday. This is a violation. The guys
[00:12:49] who couldn't keep their mouths shut, who were constantly
[00:12:53] criticizing.
[00:13:55] What's this, look what's drawn here?
[00:14:07] various human rights organizations are probably already
[00:14:11] familiar with, due to their activities, let's say,
[00:14:14] they talk about the hellish conditions of detention in Belarusian colonies. I
[00:14:18] will ask you to give me a small tour, to show how you
[00:14:21] live, possibly, if you...
[00:14:55] they simply broke them. They have a large arsenal of
[00:14:58] how to break people. This Stalinist system
[00:15:01] simply made this person
[00:15:03] into a liar,
[00:15:07] but it's not his
[00:15:08] fault.
[00:15:11] So there is indeed
[00:15:13] no task to preserve
[00:15:17] the health of the prisoner. There are three meals a day, but it is
[00:15:21] very unbalanced. It is necessary
[00:15:24] to understand that there is special food, usually
[00:15:27] it is very carbohydrate-rich porridge and
[00:15:30] stew. A person on such a diet
[00:15:33] does not receive a sufficient amount of the necessary elements.
[00:15:38] people who have been there for a very long time, their teeth just
[00:15:41] fell out. I practically starved for a whole year.
[00:15:44] At first, they didn't let me eat or sleep. It's impossible to eat
[00:15:48] in the isolation cell because, well, the food is different, because
[00:15:51] the food they give in the isolation cell is not given in the general
[00:15:55] area. Then they deprived me of parcels for half a year, and
[00:15:58] accordingly, I somehow just scraped by.
[00:16:02] In the store that is there, I could only spend 70'
[00:16:05] rubles for the whole month. 4 rubles, to buy
[00:16:09] at least three apples there, that's already
[00:16:12] 30 rubles. And besides all that, you need to buy
[00:16:15] hygiene products, you need to buy cigarettes, because
[00:16:18] well, the only thing that saved me was going out to smoke. For most
[00:16:22] illnesses, it's some kind of ibuprofen.
[00:16:25] Sick people go to work simply because
[00:16:28] political prisoners are very rarely given sick leave, then they get even sicker and
[00:16:32] there the process of getting sick lasts a very long time, it's very
[00:16:36] difficult to recover from it.
[00:16:52] Well, first of all, I had three suicide attempts in the colony. Secondly, I
[00:16:55] woke up every morning and wondered why I
[00:16:58] woke up. I was simply physically and morally
[00:17:02] exhausted.
[00:17:09] everything the operative said, the convicts did.
[00:17:12] They started pouring cold water on me at night, spoiling my
[00:17:16] food, throwing me off the bed, and this
[00:17:20] happens every day constantly. The first
[00:17:23] attempt was two or three weeks after they didn't let me eat or
[00:17:27] sleep. My brain generally stopped functioning, well, that
[00:17:30] is, I really fell asleep literally
[00:17:33] at the factory in the toilet, then at that
[00:17:36] moment... that is, who am I, what am I, I take a razor, I
[00:17:40] go to the washbasin, I just got ready, in short, at
[00:17:43] that moment one of my very good friends, I hope she will be released
[00:17:47] soon, she went after me then,
[00:17:51] she just shouted into my ear, what are you doing
[00:17:55] here, and I, in short, came to my senses,
[00:17:59] three times I, so to speak, got away with it, and
[00:18:02] well, I don't know, I don't know what it's
[00:18:05] connected with, probably it wasn't time.
[00:19:32] that you are about to be released, there is always distrust whether this will happen or not, it is unknown. I knew that I would be imprisoned, yes, and I just didn't know when and for what, but a former political prisoner cannot live peacefully in
[00:19:36] Belarus.
[00:21:25] what a modern
[00:21:26] war it is,
[00:21:30] these are just the names given by our donors, our angels,
[00:21:33] the rescuers led 17 people
[00:21:37] out of this house.
[00:21:45] attack on our
[00:21:47] history.
[00:21:49] carefully,
[00:22:54] ignoring
[00:23:01] the topic doesn't work, but actively discussing it,
[00:23:04] pro-government media don't dare. Let's talk about the availability
[00:23:08] of gasoline now, this also creates a certain
[00:23:11] background, nervousness. Regional media practically
[00:23:15] daily publish lists of gas stations where you can
[00:23:18] refuel and give advice. to save fuel, local
[00:23:21] authorities periodically introduce a "odd-even" system, depending
[00:23:25] on the car number of private car owners. Emergency
[00:23:29] services transport and the fleet of
[00:23:32] officials remain a priority. The reasons for the crisis are not publicly
[00:23:35] discussed in the media, using vague wording
[00:23:38] and so on. Work on controlling and stabilizing prices at
[00:23:41] private gas stations. Official sources attribute the fuel shortage to
[00:23:45] disrupted logistics and well-known political
[00:23:48] reasons. to finance
[00:24:21] the war in Ukraine, is actually falling apart.
[00:24:24] Military spending continues to grow, as does the budget
[00:24:28] deficit. According to official data from the Ministry of Finance, for January-August
[00:24:31] of this year, it reached 5.8 trillion rubles, or
[00:24:35] 2.5% of GDP, which is one and a half times
[00:24:38] more than the same period last year, 2025.
[00:24:41] According to economists' estimates, this year's deficit could
[00:24:45] amount to 9 trillion rubles. However, in the Kremlin,
[00:24:48] the deficit is called...
[00:25:51] two operational officers were present in the office, who were
[00:25:55] beating him. In fact, they dictated the text
[00:25:58] of the testimony he gave as a witness, despite
[00:26:01] being a minor. The girl was only 17 years old. She and
[00:26:05] five other arrestees were sent to a pre-trial detention center before the
[00:26:08] verdict was announced.
[00:26:15] Are you or Yeltsin
[00:26:17] to blame for the collapse of the USSR? I would say
[00:26:20] this:
[00:26:29] just imagine that Gorbachev, what I went through?
[00:26:39] There's so much horror
[00:26:41] in
[00:26:43] those materials.
[00:26:50] I turned and grabbed that kettle and drank it all
[00:26:53] at once.
[00:27:00] That's how it is.
[00:27:33] and tremendous effort, skill, everything, it's
[00:27:37] not that simple, and you have to, as
[00:27:40] they say, hitch up
[00:27:41] again, guys,
[00:27:44] people should know what is happening in the
[00:27:48] country, the thick-headed ones are big,
[00:27:51] he said,
[00:27:54] the leaves fall
[00:27:55] from them,
[00:27:58] the water will not carry them away, time shows
[00:28:01] that... at the end of their strength, I said
[00:28:05] what I said, but you
[00:28:07] didn't say anything, that's good.
[00:28:20] But how to work in exile, I don't know, I still don't really
[00:28:23] know. I had two main fears in
[00:28:27] life: prison and immigration. In the end,
[00:28:31] I left so as not to...
[00:28:34] I stopped communicating with many important sources because
[00:28:38] they support the war. Well, in general, yes, I really
[00:28:41] miss Russia, but I live with the full understanding that
[00:28:44] the Russia I
[00:28:46] left no longer
[00:28:49] exists.
[00:28:55] We have Sofia, there are
[00:28:58] books
[00:29:00] called: "I am a book
[00:29:03] of memory." This is all
[00:29:06] very, it was not easy for me to talk about
[00:29:09] it. The worst thing is that it was
[00:29:13] a suicide.
[00:29:18] We were all mama's
[00:29:19] girls.
[00:29:28] No protected person may be punished for
[00:29:32] an offense not committed personally by them. Collective
[00:29:36] punishment, as well as any measures of intimidation or
[00:29:39] terror, are prohibited. Robberies
[00:29:42] are forbidden. Reprisals against
[00:29:45] protected persons and their property are forbidden. You