When you organise a political party congress, the unspoken rule is to greet and exchange a few words with every delegate or guest whenever possible. On 24 October in Białystok, this rule worked in the best possible way.
As registration begins, I walk around the hall and lobby and notice an unfamiliar young woman, about twenty, who seems frightened by something. I approach and greet her. I start a conversation — how are you, what’s your story, how did you hear about the BChD Congress... She looks at me as if I were an alien. I realise she does not understand Belarusian. Aha.
“And who invited you?”
“This person here,” she replies, showing a contact on her phone. “To make live videos with Congress participants.”
“Wonderful,” I say. “And where are you from?”
“I’m from Ukraine.”
“Glory to the heroes. Come with me.”
Anatol, security. He politely asks questions, takes a photo of the contact for the “comrade from the operations department”, and explains to the young woman what’s what — while out of the corner of my eye I already spot a commotion near the guest registration desk. Again, I hear “Live video”.
Another young woman is trying to register for the Congress as a guest. The same story.
In the duel between BChD and the KGB, Belarusian Christian Democracy took a 2:0 lead.
