According to the information of the journalist Uladzimir Padhol, Barys Khamaida has been coming to the ‘blue house’ in Vitsebsk holding the painting Pahonia, presented to him by a same-name group of Belarusian artists, for about two weeks.

Vitsebsk oblast executive committee took a decision on establishing Pahonia image as the coat or arms of the region. According to Uladzimir Padhol, the opposition activist Barys Khamaida ‘was voluntary familiarizing city dwellers with an image of a horseman with a sword’.

Khamaida was detained for allegedly ‘spoiling the landscape of the town’. The police drew up a violation report against him and confiscated a book of Lukashenka’s quotes Narodny Televizor, made up by Uladzimir Padhol.