Opposition will miss me: former riot police chief

Yury Padabed, the former chief of the anti-riot police brigade in Minsk, has said the opposition will miss him after news broke about his resignation.
"After a new commander of the special police troops was appointed, several members of the opposition called me to express regret that I was not any longer to crack violations during their unauthorized rallies," Padabed told Interfax news agency.

"They found me on the phone in a hospital and burst out crying that they were not safe to attend rallies without me", Padabed said ironically. He said he "learned the Belarusian opposition very well over the past ten years. There are normal people amongst them, but this word should not be applied to their leaders".