Mikalai graduated from the Faculty of Physics of the Belarusian State University. In the 2020 election he was an observer: on the eve of the vote he was detained and jailed for six days.
On 19 February 2022, Mikalai was detained at the border on charges of sending letters to members of election commissions before the referendum of 27 February 2022, urging them to count the votes honestly.
In September 2022, Mikalai was found guilty in a criminal case opened under the article "Obstruction of the exercise of electoral rights" and sentenced to imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony.
According to human rights defenders’ estimates, he was released in March 2024 after serving the full sentence imposed by the court.
