Apeykin revealed what was in the last SMS messages Kotau sent to his wife from a yacht in Turkey
The executive director of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation assures that Kotau is among the 1% of people "who possess the most dangerous skill — the ability to think strategically and build sustainable long-term processes." But he fell for a trick — "a person Anatol trusted invited him to a yacht under the guise of negotiations."
Anatol Kotau and Aliaksandr Apeykin. Photo: Apeykin's Facebook
Sports functionary Aliaksandr Apeykin commented on the investigation into the disappearance of his friend Anatol Kotau.
He is convinced that Kotau, as an individual, posed an existential threat to Lukashenka's system.
"99% of the entire political mainstream poses no real threat to today's Belarusian authorities. And even on the contrary — they serve as a good contrast to demonstrate their managerial advantages. ... I can name only a few people whom I would classify as the remaining 1%. These are people who possess the most dangerous skill — the ability to think strategically and build sustainable long-term processes. That is, these are people with deep systemic knowledge and extremely high organizational abilities. In any society, this is a rare commodity. Today, almost all people who can truly oppose the Belarusian system are within the system itself. On the external contour — only a few, and you probably don't know them.
So, Anatol Kotau is one of those people. ... The fact that his intellectual potential would be enough to outsmart the system is a fact," Apeykin muses.
Nevertheless, Apeykin admits that despite all the above, Kotau allowed himself to be lured into a trap.
"A person Anatol trusted invited him to a yacht under the guise of negotiations. On the evening of August 21, Anatol boarded the yacht in Trabzon port. He soon realized it was a trap, managed to write a few SMS messages to his wife, which looked like a farewell. Then he was beaten and handed over to Russian special services at sea near Abkhazia. His further fate is unknown," Apeykin writes.