Sources: Usau and Krautsou Removed by Polish Special Services. The Situation with Dzikavitski is Different

A separate New Year's reception for Belarusians is a symbolic annual event, the tradition of which was started by the previous President of Poland, Andrzej Duda. Businesspeople, representatives of the political and cultural elite gathered there. In previous years, only a narrow circle of invitees knew about it — as with other similar diplomatic receptions.

The public grievance of Aliaksei Dzikavitski, the former director of Belsat, regarding his non-invitation to this year's reception, drew increased attention to the event and the guest list.

«The preparation of receptions and the artistic part from the Belarusian side is traditionally handled by the representation for national revival of the United Transitional Cabinet — currently Irena Katsialovich and Pavel Barkouski. Guest lists are jointly formed by the Polish and Belarusian sides.

The final decision on the list of participants rests with the Polish side. Proposals from the Belarusian side are far from always accepted,» — wrote on Facebook Franak Viačorka, an advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, attempting to explain the situation.

Notably, the reasons for non-invitation vary for different people. This became known to Nasha Niva from three sources.

Overall, the number of people invited to the reception was significantly reduced this year. This is possibly due to a general course towards cost-saving. At the same time, many well-known political prisoners were released last year. It was to them that the employees of the United Transitional Cabinet, who compiled the «list of proposals from the Belarusian side,» gave preference. Therefore, some of the guests from previous receptions did not make it onto the preliminary list. Among them was Aliaksei Dzikavitski, who previously headed the Belsat TV channel. Nevertheless, since the final word rested with the Polish authorities, he was ultimately added to the list of invitees.

A completely different case is with Pavel Usau and Ivan Krautsou. They were on the «Belarusian proposal list,» but were crossed out by Polish special services.

Pavel Usau is a political scientist who has been living in Poland since the mid-2000s. He consistently joined opposition forces that opposed a single opposition leader. When Milinkevich was the leader of the democratic opposition, Usau joined «Charter,» which undermined Milinkevich. When Tsikhanouskaya became the leader, Usau initially tried to encourage Pavel Latushka to compete with her, and later became the right-hand man of Zianon Pazniak.

Ivan Krautsou was in Viktor Babaryka's campaign staff in 2020. He was driving the car when Maria Kalesnikava jumped out of the car at the border and tore up her passport. Now Krautsou is the secretary of the Coordination Council.

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