Singer Rita Dakota (Margarita Gerasimovich), who was born in Belarus and built her career in Russia, spoke publicly for the first time about why her mother, Svetlana Gerasimovich, was detained in 2022. She did so on Instagram. Details have been recounted by, among others, Salidarnasc / GazetaBY and Nasha Niva.

Independent outlet Nasha Niva reported that news of the detention surfaced in a pro-government Telegram channel in the typical format used for such posts. The text referred to the threat of a criminal case over participation in protests.

What Dakota says now

According to the singer, her mother—a former primary-school teacher—was “the fairest and most empathetic” person.

“Being the fairest, most empathetic, and most compassionate person on this earth, my mother couldn’t walk past a crowd of security officers kicking a young man lying on the ground in the head with their kirza boots in Minsk in broad daylight. My mother shouted that this was wrong and tried to appeal to their humanity. Of course, no one listened to a pensioner; they brushed her off rudely.”

Rita says her mother came home deeply shaken by what she had seen—and wrote some emotional comment on social media. “For that she was charged with ‘public insult of a representative of authority in connection with the performance of official duties’ and ‘cyberbullying.’” Her mother could have been jailed, but “miraculously managed to leave” the country.

After Svetlana Gerasimovich’s detention, her daughter says, serious health problems began: she underwent major surgery and became a wheelchair user.

Why this is only coming out now

Rita Dakota deliberately stayed silent for several years: she feared publicity would worsen her mother’s situation. That is a typical pattern for families under political pressure—going public is seen as added risk.

Further context: after the 2020 protests in Belarus and the track “Ukhoди” (“Leave”), the singer herself ended up on a blacklist in her home country. After the full-scale war began, she spoke out in support of Ukraine. Nasha Niva has described restrictions on her touring in Russia and forced emigration (including living in the United States). The story with her mother fits into the wider pattern of pressure on relatives and associates.

Bottom line

Svetlana Gerasimovich’s case illustrates how in Belarus a response to street violence and an online post can lead to criminal exposure and a severe toll on health, while the family avoids discussing it publicly for years for safety reasons.