Nikita Zolotarev Was Released Directly From The Detention Center.

• 20.03.2026, 9:24

The youngest political prisoner of Belarus gave his first interview in freedom.

A short, modest guy in a brown bike got out of a minibus in a private sector of Vilnius. This is Nikita Zolotarev. Together with the other 14 political prisoners, he was taken to Lithuania after the arrival of the U.S. special envoy for Belarus John Cole in Minsk. Nikita was detained on August 11, 2020. The guy spent five years and seven months behind bars. He told the journalists of "Zerkalo" about how the release took place.

"At 11 o'clock somewhere they came, took me out of the detention center"

Nikita was the first to appear from the van. But he stood quietly aside while other political prisoners who had agreed to talk were talking to journalists. When it was his turn, Nikita answered the questions cautiously and briefly, without unnecessary emotions, as if afraid to say too much.

In the morning of Wednesday, March 18, he was still in the punishment cell of colony No. 8 in Orsha. Nikita got to this colony when he was sentenced under Article 411 of the Criminal Code (Malicious disobedience of the colony administration). Before that he was in prison.

- At 11 o'clock they came and took me out of the punishment cell. Initially they said that the prosecutor had come to see me. Investigator, prosecutor, - says the young man. - They took me to the checkpoint there in the colony. Then they gave us our things, loaded us into some white cars... And took us to Minsk. We arrived there at five o'clock in the evening, spent the night there. And only in the morning they took us to the border. Then I realized that they were going to release us. I didn't know what they would take us, they didn't tell us anything. I was at a loss, my thoughts were confused. And only now, when everything was over, I realized that I was already free. It was hard to realize and understand all this. Thank you all for everything, a little later I will be able to say everything.

Nikita says that he had no choice whether to stay or go.

- They just took him away, - he said and added that they tried to persuade him to write a petition for clemency: - But I did not agree to it.

The ex-political prisoner was not given his passport, although he already had it. His only document is his school certificate.

- They only gave him his ninth grade certificate," he says.

"It was hard. I made it. Endured"

On the attitude of the administration of correctional institutions, which passed, Nikita is not yet ready to talk in detail. Recall, his father told the media that the guy is being beaten in the pre-trial detention center. Later it became known that Nikita was regularly put in the SHIZO. Apparently, the conditions were so unbearable that the guy opened his veins.

- It was hard. I made it. I endured, - Nikita answers briefly. And admits that in the colony he had a red tag, which means a tendency to extremism.

- I believe that I did not deserve such a profiling, which they put me, - says Nikita.

The guy describes his health as "already better". Three days before his release he was lying in the medical unit of the colony under a drip.

- I have epilepsy. I was lying in the hospital, in the local medical unit, under drips. They said I had a microstroke. I don't know if it's true or not, or if they were trying to psychologically drive me this way," the young man describes. - [Today] in the morning it was a bit bad - they gave me some medicine. So now it's much better than it was.

"A happy man, over the moon just"

Nikita has not yet contacted his family. He says he misses his mother, father and brother and sister very much.

- I hope that in the future everything will be fine, I will be able to go back to normal Belarus. To the city where I was born," he believes. - Now, I hope it will be my second home. I've been so lovingly received, everyone takes care of me. I haven't seen such care even in my childhood. Thank you that they freed me and I can feel like a human being, not a robot, a slave, not sleeping under the radiator like a dog. To feel like a free man is... It is beyond words. A happy man, over the moon with happiness. You don't need anything else, just to breathe the air, when you don't see this freedom and fresh air for months. To stand in the circle of ordinary people, civilians, not among the Belarusian police.

Nikita describes his priority plans simply - to recover, and then to study and go to work. But the first thing he would like is "spiritual food".

- I am a believer myself, I came to faith in prison. Before that, I wasn't such a believer. And now I realized that there is God, that helps, - describes Nikita. - I want to pray, to thank that... I believe that the Lord heard my prayers. And to all the people who asked for us, helped us - thank you very much.