"Valentines" to Pavel Seviarynets hang for 10 minutes

Two "Valentines", addressed to the jailed youth leader Pavel Seviarynets, today appeared during a picket staged by the pro-governmental Belarusian Republic Union of Youth (BRSM) in Vicebsk. They were removed by the picket organizers ten minutes into the action. The pro-government youth activists installed a stand on one of the central streets of the regional city. It looked like a huge red-green heart, proposing the by-passers to leave their Valentine greetings.

According to the action organizers, greetings could be addressed to anyone: lovers, friends, teachers, bosses, the favorite city and to the Belarus as a whole.

Some unidentified residents signed their greetings to the political prisoner Pavel Seviarynets: "Pavel Seviarynec is the best guy in Belarus!" and "Freedom to Pavel Seviarynets!" One of the action organizers removed them from the stand after 10 minutes.

The BRSM said the biggest number of greetings were addressed to Zmicier Kaldun, Ksenija Sitnik, Siargej Kukhto and Aliaksandr Lukashenka. All of them are soon to be forwarded to Minsk, reports our correspondent Jadviga Stasheuskaja in Vicebsk.