Who is Anatol Mikhnavets, who became the Vice-Speaker of the Coordination Council

Anatol Mikhnavets at the Belsat debates. May 12, 2026. Screenshot: Belsat

"Kraj" and the Gonchar-Krasouski case

Anatol Mikhnavets was born on July 7, 1975, in Minsk. He says he started participating in public and political life while still in school — virtually from the age of 13.

After school, he graduated from a vocational technical school with a red diploma, then a technical college — also with a red diploma. He was accepted without exams into the Belarusian Polytechnic Academy (now BNTU). But from there, as Mikhnavets himself says, he was expelled for political reasons. After that, he became a "professional revolutionary".

In the Belarusian national movement, his name became known in the late 1990s. In 1998, Mikhnavets, together with Vadzim Kabančuk, created the sports and patriotic organization "Kraj". According to Pavel Sevyarynets's recollections, it emerged after a part of the "Malady Front" squad underwent training in Ukraine.

The participants combined physical training, historical education, actions in defense of Belarusian independence (including fights with the police and Russian neo-Nazis from RNE) and youth work. The "Krayoutsy" leaflets bore the motto "God! Belarus! Freedom!", and they considered Kastuś Kalinoŭski, Vaclaŭ Lastoŭski, and Father Vincent Hadleŭski as their ideological predecessors.

"Kraj" operated until 2001. Mikhnavets associates one of the most acute episodes of his early political biography with this organization — work around the case of the disappearance of politician Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski: the "krayoutsy" uncovered the circumstances of their abduction. But after this, according to Mikhnavets, he and his associates had to hide and leave the country.

Павялічыць

Anatol Mikhnavets speaking during a meeting with Belarusians at the House of Literature on Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw. January 16, 2014. Source: commons.wikimedia.org

For some time, Mikhnavets, along with Kabančuk, was in Belgium. There they created the "Belarusian European Association," organized pickets and actions, and also arranged a congress of Belarusian political emigration.

"We were not going to live in emigration — we wanted to participate, to influence processes in the country, so we returned to Belarus. And I was there until 2006," he explains to Belsat.

Politician Pavel Sevyarynets described him as one of the organizers and leaders of the national-patriotic environment, a person capable of maintaining calm in dangerous situations and organizing people in moments of tension. This is a personal assessment by a comrade, but it shows how Mikhnavets was perceived in that circle.

Honoring Kalinoŭski's memory

After the 2006 presidential elections and the dispersal of the Square, Mikhnavets left again — for Poland. He was admitted to the Kalinoŭski program, which was created for Belarusian students who suffered from political persecution or could not continue their studies in Belarus.

In Poland, he studied at Collegium Civitas, a prestigious private university in Warsaw, founded in 1997 under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences. There, Mikhnavets first obtained a bachelor's degree, then completed a master's degree in "international relations."

During his studies in Poland, he created the "Belarusian National Memory" initiative. Its participants searched for burial sites of Belarusian national figures, commemorated places of remembrance and historical evenings.

A special place in this work was given to honoring Kastuś Kalinoŭski. Mikhnavets and his like-minded people began to travel to Mastaŭliany on Kalinoŭski's birthday and to Vilnius on the day of his death. Mikhnavets notes that March 22 — the day of Kalinoŭski's death — was for a long time overshadowed by Freedom Day, which is celebrated on March 25, so they sought to revive a separate tradition of remembrance.

When Kalinoŭski's remains and those of his comrades were found in Vilnius in 2016, Mikhnavets became part of the circle of representatives of the Belarusian public who contacted the Lithuanian side regarding the reburial of the 1863-1864 insurgents.

Павялічыць

Anatol Mikhnavets at an action of solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners. Warsaw. September 12, 2020. Photo: Charter-97

BChD, Rymasheuski's campaign, and a month "underground"

In the mid-2000s, Mikhnavets, along with Vadzim Kabančuk, joined the Belarusian Christian Democracy. Later, he was a member of the National Council of the BChD. During the 2010 presidential campaign, he was part of Vital Rymasheuski's initiative group and collected signatures for his nomination as a presidential candidate.

In 2010, despite living and studying in Poland, Mikhnavets took an academic leave and came to Minsk for the presidential campaign. He worked at Rymasheuski's headquarters and was in Belarus during the post-election events of December 2010. After the dispersal of the protest action, as the activist himself said, he lived "underground" for about a month, after which he returned to Poland.

He later explained that he could not return to Belarus because he was "on all blacklists."

In 2019, Mikhnavets was honored with the Medal in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the BNR for his significant contribution to the Belarusian national-democratic movement and public activity.

Flag at a hockey game and Belarusian volunteers in Ukraine

In 2013, his name appeared in the media due to an action with a white-red-white flag during a Belarus-Czech Republic hockey match in Sweden. Mikhnavets unfurled a large national flag in the stands, after which he was escorted out by security.

After the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, he was involved in organizational work in the Belarusian volunteer movement. As Sevyarynets and Mikhnavets himself previously stated, from 2014 this was work in the "Belarus" Tactical Group, and after 2022 — in structures associated with the Kalinoŭski Regiment. In the Kalinoŭski Regiment, Mikhnavets headed the flag service.

Павялічыць

Anatol Mikhnavets with Polish Minister of Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Photo: personal archive

Later, together with Kabančuk, he participated in the creation of the public movement "Kalinoŭcy," which declares its task to prepare Belarusians for the struggle for freedom and for survival in wartime conditions.

"I am for attacking, not defending"

Mikhnavets currently lives in Poland, Warsaw, does not have Polish citizenship, nor permanent residence. He works as an archivist.

"I have Belarusian citizenship. Every year I hoped there would be changes in Belarus, and I didn't get any other citizenship. I have temporary residence cards, I intend to return to Belarus," the politician said.

In 2026, Mikhnavets, as part of the "Volya" list, entered the new composition of the Coordination Council, where on July 1 he was elected first vice-speaker. 55 out of 75 members of the Council voted for his candidacy. Mikhnavets himself says that in the KC, his faction will rely on the strategy announced at the "Path to Freedom" conference in 2023:

"We want to liberate Belarus. So that all actors — political, public — work according to one plan, where functions are divided, there are deadlines, there is responsibility, accountability, and then a result can be achieved."

Mikhnavets believes that Belarusians abroad should not perceive themselves as "second-class" people or constantly apologize to other countries for the situation in Belarus.

"We must defend ourselves, we must be strong. I am for attacking, not defending. We are not second-class people, we do not have to apologize to anyone," he says.

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