Mikhail is an associate professor and Candidate of Technical Sciences, the author of monographs and inventions, and the first person in Belarus to register a car running on alternative fuel. He headed a laboratory at Vitebsk State Technological University that worked on hydrogen technologies.
In 2006, the KGB took an interest in his work. After he refused to cooperate with the security services, Mikhail was accused of “embezzlement through abuse of official powers” and in 2007 was sentenced to 5 years in a penal colony.
After his release, he took up human rights work: he joined the organisation Platform and later co-founded Platform Innovation. He was detained again in August 2014, a week after the verdict was announced in the case of Andrei Bondarenko, director of the private consulting and legal institution Platform Innovation. In 2015, the Vitebsk Regional Court found him guilty under several articles — disclosure of official secrets, illegal devices for gathering information, and bribery — and sentenced him to imprisonment in a strict-regime colony. In October of the same year, the Supreme Court increased his sentence by six months.
Released in February 2021 after serving his full court-imposed sentence.
On January 23, 2024, Mikhail was detained once again; violence was used against him during the search and interrogations. After his release from the detention facility, he left Belarus.
