Belarus expelled two more on Polish diplomats on March 11 after Poland expelled a Belarus diplomat in a tit-for-tat spat that erupted after a World War II commemoration.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it had expelled the two diplomats “in connection with the excessive, asymmetric, and destructive response of Poland.”
The two senior staff members of the Polish Consulate in the city of Hrodno were given 48 hours to leave the country, the ministry said.
The unofficial commemorative event at the heart of the dispute took place February 28 in the southwestern Belarusian city of Brest in honor of so-called “cursed soldiers,” Polish fighters who initially fought against Nazi occupation and later turned against Soviet occupiers. The soldiers often acted violently against non-Poles, especially Belarusians.
Minsk on March 9 announced it was expelling the Polish consul, Jerzy Timofejuk, saying he had taken part in the ceremony, prompting Warsaw to also declare a Belarusian diplomat “persona non grata” the next day.
Belarus then responded with the expulsion of the two Polish diplomats on March 11.
Poland’s deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said that Warsaw reserved its right to an “adequate response” to the move.
Belarusian prosecutors said on March 10 they had opened a criminal case into the Brest event for actions aimed at inciting national, religious enmity, and hate based on nationality, religion, language, as well as actions aimed at glorifying Nazism.
The Foreign Ministry in Minsk said celebrating “war criminals and the justification of genocide against the Belarusian people” was unacceptable.
The Day of Cursed Soldiers has been commemorated in Poland every March 1 since 2011.
Relations between Belarus and Poland have been strained recently after protests broke out against the disputed reelection in August of Belarus strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Poland has sheltered Belarusian activists that have fled across the border to escape a crackdown on the opposition.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, BelTA, AFP, and dpa
MINSK — New criminal charges have been filed against jailed Belarusian blogger Ihar Losik, his wife says, adding that upon hearing the charges he restarted a hunger strike.
Losik, a consultant for RFE/RL on new-media technologies, also tried to slit his wrists in front of an investigator and a lawyer, his wife Darya told RFE/RL on March 11, citing his lawyer.
She said the precise wording of the new charges is unknown, and demanded that Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka tell her why her husband has been in prison for nine months.
This comes less than two months after Losik ended a six-week hunger strike to protest charges that he allegedly helped organize riots over last year’s disputed presidential election in Belarus.
News of the new charges against the 28-year-old father of a 2-year-old daughter prompted a response from RFE/RL President Jamie Fly, who urged Lukashenka to release him immediately so he can be reunited with his family.
“All of us at RFE/RL are deeply distressed by today’s new charges against Ihar, and his deteriorating health situation,” Fly said in a statement, adding: “Journalism is not a crime and Ihar has been unjustly detained for far too long. Ihar and his family should not be tortured in this way.”
WATCH: ‘Mockery Of Justice’: Wife Of Detained Belarusian Blogger Demands His Release
Losik was arrested on June 25, 2020, and accused of using his popular Telegram channel to “prepare to disrupt public order” and “preparation for participation in riots” ahead of the presidential election on August 9.
Losik on December 15 was slapped with charges that could result in an eight-year prison term if he is convicted.
In protest, Losik, who has been recognized as a political prisoner by rights activists, launched his hunger strike.
Losik announced the end of that hunger strike on January 25, saying he did so “on my own volition.” A statement issued by his lawyer at the time said he was “simply moved by the unbelievable wave of solidarity.”
But the blogger’s state of mind apparently declined soon afterward based on a handwritten letter that he wrote on February 18 and published on social media after the news of a two-year jail sentence given to two journalists of Belsat.
“I have no illusion. I think it’ll be about five more years, and by that time I will have died. I no longer have any desire to do anything,” Losik wrote. “So much has already been done, and all for naught: Nothing influences anybody. I’ll say it honestly: I doubt anything will change.”
Since the presidential election, Belarus has witnessed regular demonstrations whose size and scope are unparalleled in the country’s post-Soviet history.
Western governments have refused to acknowledge Lukashenka as the winner of the vote, and imposed sanctions on him and his allies, citing election rigging and the police crackdown.
Lukashenka has refused to step down and says he will not negotiate with the opposition.
Ihar Losik with his wife Darya
In his letter, Losik said he believed everyone who has protested against the government will be jailed and those who aren’t will leave or be silenced.
“Russia will assist with money, and that’s how it will remain for several years to come. That’s why I’m thinking I have to somehow prepare myself. Because I’ve grown tired of waiting and hoping for something good while, each week for the past eight months, things only deteriorate,” he said.
Losik wrote of a sense of helplessness, saying it was sad, but he saw no reason to believe otherwise, and said he didn’t want his wife to witness a trial.
“Better they should just quickly shoot me, so as not to have to witness all that.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has refused to recognize Viktar Lukashenka, the eldest son of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, as the new chairman of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Belarus.
The Belarusian NOC was led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka from 1997 until last month. Lukashenka’s son, Viktar, was named the new NOC chairman late last month after leaving the post of presidential aide on national security.
Viktar Lukashenka and Baskau were among Belarusian officials targeted by EU sanctions last year over ongoing violence and police brutality against peaceful demonstrators, who have protested against official results of the presidential election last August that pronounced Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner for the sixth time since 1994.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Baskau, who is known as a close ally of Lukashenka, has been implicated in the killing of an anti-Lukashenka protester, Raman Bandarenka, in November 2020.
The IOC also said in its statement that it decided to “suspend all financial payments to the NOC of Belarus,” with several exceptions, and to “suspend any discussions with the NOC of Belarus regarding the hosting of future IOC events.”
The IOC also urged the NOC and its member federations “to ensure that there is no political discrimination in the participation of the Belarusian athletes in qualification events, and in the final selection of the team of the NOC of Belarus, for all Olympic Games.”
Several prominent Belarusian athletes have been handed jail terms of 10 to 15 days for their open support of the ongoing protests, demanding Lukashenka’s resignation.
In January, nearly 350 Belarusian athletes and other members of the sports community signed an open letter calling for the presidential election to be annulled and for all “political prisoners” and those detained during mass demonstrations that followed to be released.
Thousands of protesters in Belarus, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained by authorities, some handed prison terms, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.
Ales Bialiatski laying flowers at a memorial to Aliaksandr Taraikouski, a protester who was killed during a demonstration on August 10, 2020. Credit: HRC Viasna
On February 16, Ales Bialiatski’s home and the offices of his human rights organisation Viasna in Minsk were raided by police. He was targeted along with more than 40 other human rights defenders, journalists and their relative in towns across the country, with reports of officials using excessive force while seizing phones, computers and credit cards.
Bialiatski, one of Belarus’ most prominent human rights defenders, says the authorities were looking for any evidence of organisations or journalists “financing” peaceful protests against the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko. The raids are the latest development in the government’s brutal crackdown on mass protests which have been ongoing in the country since Lukashenko claimed victory in a rigged election last August. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/ales-bialiatski/]
The authorities have recently opened a criminal case against Viasna and Bialiatski himself. A former political prisoner who spent nearly three years jailed in Minsk, he says that, by the time this article is published, he may once again be behind bars.
“Millions of people want change, and the answer of the government is repression,” says Bialiatski, speaking to Geneva Solutions from the Right Livelihood Foundation offices in Geneva. He and Viasna received the prestigious award in 2020.
Seven months on from the election, more than 33,000 people have been detained, and there are widespread reports of police brutality, arbitrary arrests, kidnapping, and torture of detainees.
The human rights situation in Belarus is, in Bialiatski’s words, “an absolute catastrophe”. “The situation is quite horrible because it’s not only human rights defenders that suffer,” he explains. “It’s all levels of society. Anybody who can think.”
Over half a year since the first protests broke out in the capital Minsk, he says the authorities are still tightening their grip on personal freedoms and carrying out grave human rights violations, targeting activists, journalists and anyone who opposes the regime. But the people of Belarus are not giving up.
What’s going on in Belarus? The government’s crackdown in Belarus follows mass protests in the country last summer after a fraudulent election in which Lukashenko, known as “Europe’s last dictator”, claimed to have won 80 per cent of the vote. The poll is widely accepted to have been rigged to extend his 25-year rule, prompting the largest demonstrations in the country’s history.
Elections in Belarus have never been considered free and fair by many international observers. Bialiatski has been working to advocate for democratic freedoms in the country since his early twenties, when the country was still under Soviet rule.
He founded Viasna in 1996, five years after Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union and two years after Lukashenko came to power. The organisation’s initial aim was to help thousands of protesters arrested during mass pro-democracy rallies after Lukashenko brought in sweeping constitutional reforms that consolidated his authoritarian rule.
“[My colleagues and I] thought that this work would finish in a few years because the problem would disappear,” says Bialiatski. “But it’s been 25 years and there’s still work to do. It’s never ended. Unfortunately, the human rights situation never got better.”
Accusations of rigged elections, brutal suppression of civil rights and corruption have been hallmarks of Lukashenko’s half a century in power. However, Bialiatski says last year’s poll acted as a catalyst. It was then that Belarusian society finally “woke up” and demanded change.
Breaking the silence. In the run-up to elections in Belarus in 2020, a number of opposition figures became extremely popular, including former members of Lukashenko’s government and Sergei Tikhanovskya, a well-known blogger who travelled the country interviewing former loyal supporters of the ruler about why they had turned against him.
Although Lukashenko jailed or exiled many of his opponents, he did not see Sviatlana Tsikhanovskaya – who ran in the place of her husband when he was imprisoned – as a significant threat. However, Tsikhanovskaya became hugely popular, gaining the support of fellow opposition figures and attracting large crowds of supporters to her rallies.
Events in 2020 drastically impacted the Lukashenko’s loyal following and damaged his reputation. The country’s already dire economic situation was exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis, which the ruler has fervently denied, refusing to bring in restrictions and joking that the virus could be fought with vodka and work in the country’s potato fields. “Lukashenko was laughing into the world’s face and denying the existence of the virus, while people all around were dying,” says Bialiatski.
Tsikhanovskaya was widely expected to win the vote in a landslide. Although independent polling is illegal in Belarus, making it difficult to measure her lead in the run up to the election, some independent exit polls conducted outside polling stations in foreign embassies on election day showed her to have received 79.69 per cent of the vote while Lukashenko received just 6.25 per cent.
When the government announced it had won 80 per cent of the vote, claiming that Tsikhanovskaya had received less than 10 per cent, Belarusians realised the election had been rigged. “It was an open lie in the face of the people,” says Bialiatski. “Of course there were rallies – nobody believed the result.”
“The very first mass protests on the street were a result of despair and disappointment and disagreement with this injustice that had happened in the country,” he adds.
Thousands of people took to the streets across the country to peacefully protest the result, but they were met with a brutal crackdown from authorities. In Minsk, which saw the worst of the violence, police and the army deployed water cannons, stun grenades and rounds of rubber bullets against protesters. Police vans were reportedly driven into crowds and hundreds were injured, with journalists and independent observers apparently targeted.
As reports circulated of extreme violence against protesters, including systematic torture of detainees by police and security forces, thousands more Belarusians rallied. Over 200,000 people took part in the largest protest in the country’s history, and there were hopes that the pressure may finally topple Lukashenko.
However, the result was an even more brutal crackdown, in which thousands were injured and arrested. “Unfortunately, the peaceful protests didn’t lead to a change of government as was hoped and expected,” says Bialiatski. “Instead, daily repressions started against different people at different layers of society, at different organisations and activists.”
Crackdown on human rights and freedom of speech. According to Viasna, over 2,300 criminal cases have been opened against human rights defenders and activists since the protests erupted in August 2020. In February alone, during the latest spate of arrests, a further 511 people were detained, 102 people received sentences and 49 people imprisoned.
There is currently a criminal case open against Viasna and Bialiatski himself for inciting “public disorder” through allegedly financing ongoing protests by paying the huge fines imposed on protesters. He says the latest raids in which police seized phones, laptops and credit cards were an attempt to collect evidence. “This is considered as financial proof against the regime,” he explains. “They are not allowing us to exercise our human rights protection work, which is our right.
“We are working all the time on the edge of the knife because [we] don’t know when this criminal case will take force and [we] will be sentenced for it,” he says.
It’s not just activists who are being targeted. According to Viasna, there are currently 258 political prisoners in the country, including journalists and bloggers. On 17 February, two journalists, Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova, both of the Polish-funded Belsat TV channel, were convicted of violating public order and sentenced to two years in prison for covering the protests.
“They are looking for ‘criminals’ among those who help political prisoners and write about the struggle of Belarusians for freedom,” wrote Tsikhanovskaya on Twitter in response to the latest raids. Tsikhanovskaya was forced to flee to Lithuania following last year’s elections.
“But in search of criminals, they should look into the offices of the riot police, the GUBOPiK (interior ministry directorate) and all those responsible for the repression.”
A number of Bialiatski’s colleagues are incarcerated in the country’s jails, imprisoned for as little as sending food parcels to jailed protesters. A former political prisoner himself who spent nearly three years behind bars from 2011-2014, Bialitksi knows all too well how terrible the conditions in Belarus’ prisons can be. With widespread reports of detainees being tortured and subjected to brutal treatment, he says he’s deeply concerned for their welfare.
“How people are treated in Belarusian jails is not a humane way to treat people,” he says. “I really hope that my colleagues and my friends can survive it and I really hope that one day they will be released.”
Pressure from the international community. Last summer’s crackdown prompted western countries to impose sanctions on Minsk, but Lukashenko has refused to resign, bolstered by diplomatic and financial support from long-standing ally Russia. Tikhanovskaya, who remains in Lithuania after the country rejected the Belarusian authority’s request for her extradition, is leading a campaign to encourage external pressure on Belarus in the hope that tougher measures against the regime may succeed in toppling Lukashenko.
Her efforts could be paying off. In December, the EU imposed a third round of economic sanctions against key individuals and companies in Belarus, while in February the Biden administration expanded the list of senior officials in the country who are no longer welcome in the United States.
Tikhanovskaya has also created a Coordination Council, effectively a government in waiting, which is headed by Bialiatski. The council is drafting a new constitution and keeps in contact with key figures in Belarus to ensure that the exiled opposition does not become detached from those who are keeping up the pressure on Lukashenko from within.
The situation in Belarus is also being closely watched by the United Nations. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet recently presented her report on the aftermath of August’s elections to the 46th session of the Human Rights Council at the end of February. Bachelet warned of a “human rights crisis” in the country and called for an immediate end to the policy of systematic intimidation used by the Belarusian authorities against peaceful protesters and for the release of political prisoners.
Viasna has supported a number of other rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch in calling on the Human Rights Council to establish a new mechanism on Belarus. Bialiatski explains that the situation in the country must be kept high up on the international agenda if there is any hope of bringing down Lukashenko’s regime.
“It is very important to continue to exercise international pressure on Belarus, pointing out that human rights have to be preserved in the country,” he says. “This help of international society is required today – not tomorrow, today. Because tomorrow it might be too late.”
Hope for the future. Bialiatski says it is impossible to predict what the coming weeks, and even days, will bring to the people of Belarus. He says the latest crackdown has had a “very, very intimating result. People are scared. ”
“One thing is for sure,” he continues. “The administrative and criminal charges, and punishments and sentences against the activists and human rights defenders will get harsher. This I can guarantee. The current power is continuing to tighten the screws.
“I ask myself often how long the people can continue to bear this pressure, and if they will continue to bear it much longer.”
There are hopes that the spring could bring another wave of protests in Belarus. Speaking during a trip to Finland last week, exiled opposition leader Tikhanovskaya said she expected mass protest against Lukashenko to start up again soon after a lull in public demonstrations due to the authorities brutal suppression.
Bialiatski shares some of her cautious optimism. “The crisis has not gone, we are not beyond it,” he says. “The disagreement, disapproval and unhappiness of the people is so strong that I think there will be another breakout soon.”
He says that it is only a matter of time before Lukashenko loses his grip on Belarus – be it a result of peaceful protests, international pressure or the deteriorating economic situation in the country, although most likely a combination of all three. “This is the first time we have clearly seen that the current regime is in the minority and this gives us a significant certainty that the regime, the current power, cannot stay much longer,” he says.
After spending most of his life tirelessly working to uphold human rights in the face of relentless persecution at the hands of the Belarusian authorities, Bialiatski has managed to retain faith that his country will one day become a free democracy. What gives him hope that this could finally be the turning point in Belarus’s history? The country’s young people, he says, who have led the movement against Lukashenko.
“These young people in Belarus who strive for a change have totally different values to Lukashenko and his entourage,” he says. “And it’s difficult to change the minds of young people. They are born with it. They will keep on fighting. ”
The investigative material focuses on Lukashenka’s personal expenses and what it describes as Lukashenka’s villas, expensive cars, and gifts he allegedly uses for his own personal needs.
The report says Lukashenka has been offering “protection” to corrupt Belarusian and foreign business people. It mentions, in particular, a luxurious residential compound in Krasnoselskoye near Minsk, which Nexta says is a gift from Russian oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev to Lukashenka in exchange for “protection.”
Lukashenka, who has been in power since 1994, publicly said last week that his “only palace” is a tiny house of less than 60 square meters where he was raised by his mother.
Lukashenka has amended the constitution several times during his authoritarian rule that brought Belarus the unwanted moniker “Europe’s last dictatorship.”
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
In August 2020, he was officially pronounced the winner of a presidential election for the sixth time, a development that triggered unprecedented mass protests across the country.
Thousands of Belarusians, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained by the authorities, some handed prison terms, and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.
Several protesters have died in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.
On September 23, 2020, Lukashenka held an inauguration ceremony behind closed doors amid public protests, but many EU countries, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada refused to recognize him as Belarus’s legitimate president.
The European Union imposed three sets of sanctions against Belarusian authorities, including Lukashenka, over the rigged presidential poll and ongoing violence and police brutality against peaceful protesters.
Dismissed by Alyaksandr Lukashenka as too fragile to run Belarus, women have been at the vanguard of the pro-democracy movement that has swept the country since the disputed presidential election on August 9, 2020.
It’s a Belarusian development that has fueled a growing global trend, explained Oksana Antonenko, director of the London-based Control Risks Group and fellow at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
“Women are playing an increasingly important role in political activism around the world, and the Belarus example has provided a great inspiration to other regions, including the latest protests in Russia, Thailand, and now Myanmar [Burma], where many participants are women,” Antonenko told RFE/RL in e-mailed comments. “Women-led protests are more likely to remain peaceful and connect with entire societies, their fears and aspirations. It is also great to see that these protests are creating a new generation of female leaders and politicians who can revive trust in democratic institutions.”
Here are six women in Belarus who are not only making a difference, but have paid a high price for it:
Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya
It was not Svyatlana, but her husband, Syarhey, who was expected to be among Lukashenka’s more credible challengers in the August 2020 poll. Syarhey Tsikhanouski had thousands of followers of his corruption-busting YouTube channel A Country For Life, and crowds heeded his call by showing up at rallies with slippers in hand to squash the “cockroach” Lukashenka.
But after her husband’s arrest on dubious charges, it was Tsikhanouskaya — an English teacher and translator — who filled the void.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appears at a campaign rally in Brest on August 2, 2020.
It was not an easy decision — in a June 2020 video she had said she was reluctant to challenge Lukashenka after receiving threats that her two young children would be taken away if she did. (They were eventually safely taken out of the country.)
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
And at one of her early rallies, in July 2020 in Navapolatsk, the 38-year-old political novice stumbled a bit before apologizing to the crowd, explaining she had never seen so many people before.
But her confidence grew along with the size of the crowds, reaching numbers rarely if ever seen for any candidate in Belarus. From the beginning, Tsikhanouskaya made it clear she was only in the race to force a repeat election that would include all banned candidates.
Shortly after an election-day showing that led her and her supporters to declare victory, she left for neighboring Lithuania after another apparent threat to her children.
From there, she has reached out to European and other leaders to shore up support for the pro-democracy movement back in Belarus and call for action to punish Lukashenka, now deemed an illegitimate leader by much of the international community.
Tsikhanouskaya spearheaded the creation of the Coordination Council to navigate Belarus toward democratic shores. But most of its top members on the presidium were either arrested or fled Belarus. It wasn’t the only setback for Tsikhanouskaya. Her calls for a national strike in October never gained traction, in part due to threats to employees at state-run factories if they joined and firings of many of those who did.
Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during an interview with the media in Helsinki on March 1.
On January 18, Tsikhanouskaya announced that she had requested the support of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to secure her safety when she returns to Belarus, and called for ONCE-facilitated talks between the European Union, Lukashenka, and the opposition to resolve the crisis.
Although crowds have dwindled due to winter weather and weariness in the face of an ongoing government crackdown, Tsikhanouskaya in Helsinki on March 3 predicted bigger and better-organized demonstrations against Lukashenka in the spring.
Tsikhanouskaya is among the more than 300 people who have been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.
Maryya Kalesnikava
Kalesnikava headed the presidential campaign of Viktar Babaryka, former chairman of the Russian-owned Belgazprombank, until it was derailed by his June 2020 arrest on embezzlement charges, which he and his supporters charge were a sham to keep him off the ballot.
Kalesnikava, 38, then teamed up with Tsikhanouskaya and Veranika Tsapkala, who headed the ill-fated campaign of her husband, Valer.
The trio were a hit on the campaign trail, drawing campaign crowds that grew in size as the August 9 presidential election approached. Tsikhanouskaya clenching her fist, Kalesnikava making a heart sign, and Tsapkala signaling a V for victory quickly became iconic symbols of the election.
Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya (center), Veranika Tsapkala (left), and Maryya Kalesnikava attend a campaign rally in Minsk on July 30, 2020.
“In Belarus 55 percent of voters are women — more than half. That means that our voice should be heard. In this way, they are trying to exclude us from the political process,” Kalesnikava told Current Time ahead of the vote. https://www.rferl.org/a/women-lead-the-charge-against-lukashenka-in-belarus/30743179.html
After the vote, which triggered an unrelenting and unprecedented wave of protests in Belarus, Kalesnikava was picked to serve on the presidium of the Coordination Council created by Tsikhanouskaya.
But as the authorities increasingly clamped down on the opposition, Kalesnikava was arrested in September and charged with calling for action aimed at damaging national security. On September 8, Kalesnikava was taken to the border with Ukraine, where she was to be forcibly deported. However, she foiled those plans by ripping up her passport, as was later recounted by two other Belarusian opposition activists who did pass into Ukraine.
On January 6, authorities extended Kalesnikava’s pretrial detention until March 8, which happens to coincide with International Women’s Day.
For her efforts, Kalesnikava was named one of the recipients of the 2021 International Women of Courage award, the U.S. State Department announced on March 4.
Kalesnikava, along with Tsikhanouskaya and Tsapkala, was also listed when the European Parliament’s 2020 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought was awarded to Belarus’s democratic opposition.
Nina Bahinskaya
Bahinskaya has been a mainstay at protests in Belarus for decades, dating back to the Soviet days. “I was motivated by all the injustice — social, political, and national. And I said, ‘If you’re not a coward, if you’re not a slave, then you should defend your country and homeland,’” she said in an interview with Current Time, the Russian-language network led by RFE/RL in cooperation with VOA.
Bahinskaya, 73, is rarely seen at demonstrations without her flag, the white-red-white symbol of the short-lived Belarusian People’s Republic, which existed for about a year in 1918-19. The flag was effectively banned by Lukashenka but has become an omnipresent symbol of the opposition to his rule.
Bahinskaya, a great grandmother, cuts a frail but resolute figure amid the crowds protesting in Belarus.
In a video from late August 2020, Bahinskaya was seen struggling with riot police in Minsk, demanding they return the flag they had snatched from her.
In September, Bahinskaya was among hundreds detained at a mostly women’s demonstration in Minsk. Men in green uniforms and black balaclavas encircled female protesters who shouted, “Only cowards beat women!”
Katsyaryna Barysevich
Barysevich, a reporter for Tut.by, an independent Belarusian news website that the authorities have targeted in a crackdown on the media, was jailed after reporting information that contradicted the government’s version of events in the death of a protester.
Barysevich was arrested on November 19 after writing an article about Raman Bandarenka, who died several days earlier following a beating by a group of masked assailants.
Barysevich disputed the official claim that Bandarenka was drunk, citing medical findings that no alcohol had been detected in his blood.
The doctor who provided the lab results, Artsyom Sarokin, was arrested, tried, and convicted along with Barysevich, ultimately receiving a suspended two-year prison sentence and fine equivalent to $555 for disclosing medical information.
Barysevich was handed a six-month prison term and fined the equivalent of $1,100 for disclosing medical information and instigating a crime by pressuring a first responder to share information.
Katsyaryna Barysevich attends a court hearing in Minsk on March 2.
In late November 2020, Amnesty International recognized Barysevich and Sarokin as prisoners of conscience and demanded their immediate release.
Katsyaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova
Andreyeva and Chultsova are among the growing number of independent Belarusian journalists who have paid a high price for plying their trade. The two reporters for Belsat, a Poland-based satellite TV station, were arrested on November 15 while covering a rally in Minsk to commemorate Bandarenka.
Belarusian authorities saw their presence differently and charged the two with “organizing public events aimed at disrupting public order.” A court in Minsk on February 18 found Andreyeva and Chultsova guilty and sentenced them to two years in prison each, sparking international condemnation, with EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano denouncing it as a “shameful crackdown on media.”
Katsyaryna Andreyeva (right) and Daryya Chultsova flash victory signs from the defendant’s cage during their trial in Minsk on February 18.
“EU strongly condemns and calls for reversal of sentencing of Belsat TV Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova for just doing their jobs. We call on Belarus authorities to respect fundamental freedoms and stop targeting journalists,” Stano said on Twitter.
The sentencing of Andreyeva and Chultsova is “one of many ways Belarus’s government has retaliated against journalists for reporting on peaceful protests and human rights violations,” Anastasia Zlobina, coordinator for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, said in a February statement.
She said at least seven other journalists were behind bars in Belarus awaiting trial on similar criminal charges. The Belarusian Association of Journalists said in a recent report that 481 journalists were detained in 2020. It said that was twice the number of detentions over the previous six years combined.
Belarusian authorities have opened a criminal investigation against one of the country’s most prominent human rights organizations and detained several of its members, in the latest crackdown on dissent against authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The Vyasna human rights center said March 5 that the Investigative Committee opened a case alleging the organization provides financing and other material support for unsanctioned mass protests and violating public order.
Four members of the center were also taken into custody.
Belarus has experienced near-daily protests since last August’s presidential election gave Lukashenka a sixth-term in a vote the opposition and West says was fraudulent and illegitimate.
Vyasna has been one of the main independent organizations keeping track of human rights abuses including torture, thousands of arrests, and political prisoners.
Security forces previously searched the group’s branches and detained and interrogated its members under separate investigations.
In a statement, Vyasna denied any wrongdoing and vowed to continue its work helping “victims of political repression and massive violations of human rights.”
“Vyasna has never been the organizer of any violent actions and has always supported the peaceful implementation of civil and political freedoms,” it said.
Vyasna has been defending human rights in Belarus for nearly 25 years, during which time it said it had been repeatedly pressured, intimidated, and persecuted by authorities.
The U.S. State Department will honor 14 “extraordinary” women from Belarus, Iran, and other countries who have demonstrated leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and a willingness to sacrifice for others.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host the annual International Women of Courage (IWOC) awards in a virtual ceremony on March 8 to honor jailed Belarusian opposition figure Maryya Kalesnikava, as well as Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess arbiter who went into exile after violating her country’s strict Islamic dress code, the State Department said in a statement on March 4.
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It said a group of seven other “extraordinary” women leaders and activists from Afghanistan who were assassinated while serving their communities will also receive an honorary award.
The IWOC award, now in its 15th year, is presented annually to women from around the world who have “demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality, and women’s empowerment — often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”
This year’s recipients include Kalesnikava, a ranking member of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus’s disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.
The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept the results. Thousands of Belarusians have been jailed during months of crackdowns on the street demonstrations against strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Kalesnikava was arrested in September and charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country’s national security, conspiracy to seize state power, and organizing extremism.
Ahead of the presidential election, “Belarusian women emerged as a dominant political force and driver of societal change in Belarus due in no small part to” Kalesnikava, according to the State Department.
The opposition figure “continues to be the face of the opposition inside Belarus, courageously facing imprisonment, it said, adding that she “serves as a source of inspiration for all those seeking to win freedom for themselves and their countries.”
The State Department said Bayat will be honored for choosing “to be a champion for women’s rights rather than be cowed by the Iranian government’s threats.”
Bayat, the first female Category A international chess arbiter in Asia, sought refuge in Britain after she was photographed at the 2020 Women’s Chess World Championship in Shanghai without her head scarf, or hijab, as her country mandates.
“Within 24 hours, the Iranian Chess Federation — which Shohreh had previously led — refused to guarantee Shohreh’s safety if she returned to Iran without first apologizing,” the State Department said.
“Fearing for her safety and unwilling to apologize for the incident, Shohreh made the heart-wrenching decision to seek refuge in the U.K., leaving her husband — who lacked a U.K. visa — in Iran.”
In addition to the individual IWOC awards, Blinken will also present an honorary award to seven Afghan women whose “tragic murders” in 2020 underscored the “alarming trend of increased targeting of women in Afghanistan.”
The women include Fatema Natasha Khalil, an official with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; General Sharmila Frough, the head of the Gender Unit in the National Directorate of Security; journalist Malalai Maiwand; women’s rights and democracy activist Freshta Kohistani; and midwife Maryam Noorzad.
Autocratic leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka says there will be “no transfer of power” in Belarus, where thousands have demonstrated acrossthe country since early August demanding his resignation over an elections they say was rigged.
“No transfer [of power] is possible in Belarus…. Everything will be in accordance with the constitution,” Lukashenka said in Minsk on March 2 as he spoke about his talks last month with President Vladimir Putin in the Russian city of Sochi.
“The [new] constitution, as I said before, we will adopt in January-February next year. And that is all that the transfer of power will be about,” Lukashenka said, adding that a transfer of power was not on the agenda when he met with Putin.
Lukashenka has been under pressure to step down for months after claiming he won an August 9 election by a landslide, while his main challenger, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has said she was the rightful victor.
Thousands of protesters have been arrested by Belarusian security forces at the anti-government rallies that have continued since August, and beatings at the hands of police have been widely documented.
The EU, which considers the election that extended Lukashenka’s 26-year authoritarian rule fraudulent, has progressively imposed sanctions on Belarus in response to the violent repression of peaceful protesters, the opposition, and media.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Tsikhanouskaya has called for the EU to take a tougher stance against Lukashenka’s regime.
Lukashenka has long sought to portray himself as a brake on Moscow’s pressure to merge Belarus with Russia. But seven months of unprecedented street protests and the resulting EU sanctions have put the Belarusian leader on the defensive and seemingly more reliant on Putin’s support.
In recent years, Russia has pressured Belarus to take steps toward integration in order to cement a 20-year-old agreement to form a union state, only to be rebuffed by Lukashenka’s defense of the nation’s sovereignty.
However, the situation began to change after Russia helped prop up Lukashenka in the wake of the presidential election, bringing the two sides closer over common threat perceptions.
Lukashenka acknowledged the close relationship but also emphasized on March 2 that Belarus remained “a sovereign and independent state.”
Putin himself has been under pressure from the West in recent months.
The EU and Washington announced new sanctions against Russian officials on March 2 over the detention of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and evidence that the anti-corruption campaigner was poisoned with a Novichok-like nerve agent. Navalny blames his poisoning on Putin and Russian agents, which the Kremlin denies.
Navalny’s detention in January upon his return from life-saving treatment in Germany and a subsequent crackdown on some of Russia’s largest anti-government protests in a decade have prompted international outrage.
MINSK — A physician and a journalist in Belarus have been convicted of disclosing information that contradicted official statements about the death of a protester killed during a crackdown on demonstrations against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
On March 2, a district court in Minsk sentenced journalist Katsyaryna Barysevich to six months in prison and fined her 2,900 rubles ($1,110) for disclosing medical data and instigating a crime by pushing a first responder to share the information.
Doctor Artsyom Sarokin was handed a suspended two-year prison term and ordered to pay a fine of 1,450 rubles ($555) for disclosing the data to Barysevich.
The two were arrested on November 19, 2020, after Barysevich cited Sarokin in an article she wrote for the online media outlet Tut.by about Raman Bandarenka, who several days earlier died from injuries sustained in a beating by a group of masked assailants — whom rights activists claim were affiliated with the authorities.
Belarusian officials have said that Bandarenka’s attackers had nothing to do with authorities or riot police, adding that he was drunk at the time of the attack.
Contradictory Account
Barysevich contradicted that account, writing that no alcohol had been found in Bandarenka’s blood, information she obtained from Sarokin, whose ambulance team provided Bandarenka with medical attention and took samples for tests right after he was found severely beaten.
In late November 2020, Amnesty International recognized Sarokin and Barysevich as prisoners of conscience and demanded their immediate release.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Bandarenka is one of several people to have been killed during the protests demanding Lukashenka’s resignation after he was announced as the winner in an August presidential election.
Outrage over what was seen by both the opposition and by many Belarusians as a rigged vote to hand Lukashenka a sixth term in office brought tens of thousands onto the streets.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
Some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
Belarusians in Ukraine gathered in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv on February 28 in support of compatriots back home to demand that Alyaksandr Lukashenka resign. In Kyiv, protesters marched through the streets and in Lviv, they expressed their support for Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny’s time as an Amnesty International “prisoner of conscience” was short-lived — but not because he was released from detention.
Navalny received the designation on January 17 following his arrest at a Moscow airport by Russian authorities who said he had violated the terms of a suspended sentence stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction. Navalny and his supporters say that both the conviction and the alleged violation are unfounded, politically motivated, and absurd.
The subsequent conversion of the suspended sentence into more than 30 months of real prison time promised to keep the ardent Kremlin critic away from street protests for the near-term, even as he stayed in the focus of anti-government demonstrators and human rights groups such as Amnesty.
But on February 23, Amnesty withdrew the designation, citing what it said were past comments by the 44-year old anti-corruption activist that “reach the threshold of advocacy of hatred.”
The term “prisoner of conscience” is widely attributed to the founder of Amnesty International, Peter Benenson, who used it in 1961 to describe two Portuguese students who had each been sentenced to seven years in prison simply for making a toast to freedom under a dictatorial government.
The label initially came to apply mainly to dissidents in the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc satellites, but over the years expanded to include hundreds of religious, political opposition, and media figures around the world, including countries of the former Soviet Union and others in RFE/RL’s immediate coverage region.
According to Amnesty’s current criteria for the designation, prisoners of conscience are people who have “not used or advocated violence but are imprisoned because of who they are (sexual orientation, ethnic, national, or social origin, language, birth, color, sex or economic status) or what they believe (religious, political or other conscientiously held beliefs).”
Navalny’s delisting has been tied by Amnesty to comments he made in the mid-2000s, as his star as a challenger to President Vladimir Putin and as an anti-corruption crusader in Russia was on the rise, but also as he came under criticism for his association with ethnic Russian nationalists and for statements seen as racist and dangerously inflammatory.
And while the rights watchdog acknowledged that the flood of requests it received to review Navalny’s past statements appeared to originate from pro-Kremlin critics of Navalny, Amnesty ultimately determined that he no longer fit the bill for the designation, even as the organization continued to call for his immediate release from prison as he was being “persecuted for purely political reasons.”
The “prisoner of conscience” designation is a powerful tool in advocating for the humane treatment of people who hold different religious, political, and sexual views than the powers that be — in some cases helping to lead to the release of prisoners.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest names who have been or remain on the list.
In Russia
Russia is a virtual cornucopia of prisoners of conscience, with formidable political opposition figures, journalists, LGBT rights activists, and advocates for ethno-national rights gracing the list.
Political Opposition
Boris Nemtsov
Boris Nemtsov, the opposition politician who was shot dead in 2015, received the designation in 2011, along with activists Ilya Yashin and Eduard Limonov, after they attended a rally in Moscow in support of free assembly.
Big Business
Former Yukos owners Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s and Platon Lebedev’s listing the same year relating to what Amnesty called “deeply flawed and politically motivated” charges that led to their imprisonment years earlier drew sharp condemnation from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
‘Terror Network’
In February 2020, Amnesty applied the designation to seven men standing trial in central Russia on what it called “absurd” charges relating to membership in a “nonexistent ‘terrorist’ organization.”
Days later, all seven members were convicted and sentenced to prison for belonging to a “terrorist cell” labeled by authorities as “Network” that the authorities claimed planned to carry out a series of explosions in Russia during the 2018 presidential election and World Cup soccer tournament.
Religious Persecution
Aleksandr Gabyshev — a shaman in the Siberian region of Yakutia who has made several attempts to march on foot to Moscow “to drive President Vladimir Putin out of the Kremlin” — was briefly placed in a psychiatric hospital in September 2019 after he called Putin “evil” and marched for 2,000 kilometers in an attempt to reach the capital.
“The Russian authorities’ response to the shaman’s actions is grotesque,” Amnesty said. “Gabyshev should be free to express his political views and exercise his religion and beliefs just like anyone else.”
In May 2020, riot police raided Gabyshev’s home and took him to a psychiatric hospital because he allegedly refused to be tested for COVID-19. Amnesty called for his immediate release.
But in January, Gabyshev was again forcibly taken to a psychiatric clinic after announcing he planned to resume his trek to Moscow to oust Putin.
In Ukraine
Prominent Ukrainian filmmaker and activist Oleh Sentsov made the list after he was arrested in Crimea in May 2014 after the peninsula was illegally annexed by Russia.
Oleh Sentsov
Amnesty repeatedly called for the release of Sentsov after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a “terrorism” conviction in what the rights watchdog declared was an “unfair trial on politically motivated charges.”
After five years in prison in Russia, Sentsov was released in a prisoner swap between Kyiv and pro-Russia separatists fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Sentsov was far from the only Ukrainian to be taken down for criticizing Russia’s seizure of Crimea, prompting Amnesty to call for the release of all “all Ukrainian political prisoners” being held in Russia.
Among them is the first Jehovah’s Witness to be sentenced by Russian authorities in the annexed territory, Sergei Filatov. The father of four was handed a sentence of six years in prison last year for being a member of an extremist group in what Amesty called “the latest example of the wholesale export of Russia’s brutally repressive policies.”
In Belarus
In Belarus, some of the biggest names to be declared “prisoners of conscience” are in the opposition to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, the authoritarian leader whose claim to have won a sixth-straight presidential term in August has led to months of anti-government protests.
Viktar Babaryka
Viktar Babaryka, a former banker whose bid to challenge Lukashenka was halted by his arrest as part of what Amnesty called a “full-scale attack on human rights” ahead of the vote, went on trial on February 17 on charges of money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion.
Fellow opposition member Paval Sevyarynets, who has been in custody since June, was charged with taking part in mass disorder related to his participation in rallies during which demonstrators attempted to collect signatures necessary to register presidential candidates other than Lukashenka.
Syarhey Tsikhanouski
The popular blogger Syarhey Tsikhanouski was jailed after expressing interest in running against Lukashenka and remains in prison. Three of his associates went on trial in January on charges of organizing mass disorder in relation to the mass protests that broke out after the election.
Tsikhanouski’s wife, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, took his place as a candidate and considers herself the rightful winner of the election.
In Kazakhstan
Aigul Otepova
Aigul Otepova, a Kazakh blogger and journalist accused of involvement in a banned organization, was forcibly placed by a court in a psychiatric clinic in November, prompting Amnesty to declare her a “a prisoner of conscience who is being prosecuted solely for the peaceful expression of her views.”
Otepova has denied any affiliation with the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) opposition movement, which has been labeled an extremist group by the Kazkakh authorities, and Otepova’s daughter told RFE/RL that the authorities were trying to silence her ahead of Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections in January.
Otepova was released from the facility in December.
In Iran
Nasrin Sotoudeh
Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has represented opposition activists including women prosecuted for removing their mandatory head scarves, was arrested in 2018 and charged with spying, spreading propaganda, and insulting Iran’s supreme leader.
She found herself back in prison in December, less than a month after she was granted a temporary release from her sentence to a total of 38 1/2 years in prison and 148 lashes.
Amnesty has called Sotoudeh’s case “shocking” and considers her a “prisoner of conscience.” In its most recent action regarding Sotoudeh, the rights watchdog called for her to be released “immediately and unconditionally.”
In Kyrgyzstan
Amnesty International in August 2019 called the life sentence handed down to Kyrgyz rights defender Azimjan Askarov a “triumph of injustice.”
Azimjan Askarov
The ethnic Uzbek Askarov was convicted of creating a mass disturbance and of involvement in the murder of a police officer during deadly interethnic clashes between local Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in June 2010 when more than 450 people, mainly Uzbeks, were killed and tens of thousands more were displaced.
Askarov has said the charges against him are politically motivated, and the UN Human Rights Committed has determined that he was not given a fair trial and was tortured in detention.
In May, after the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to not review Askarov’s sentence, Amnesty said the ruling “compounds 10 years of deep injustice inflicted on a brave human rights defender who should never have been jailed.”
In Pakistan
Junaid Hafeez
Amnesty has called the case of Junaid Hafeez “a travesty” and in 2019 called on Pakistan’s authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release the university lecturer charged with blasphemy over Facebook uploads.
Hafeez was charged under the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, which Amnesty has called on the country to repeal, describing them as “overly broad, vague, and coercive” and saying they were “used to target religious minorities, pursue personal vendettas, and carry out vigilante violence.”
Hafeez has been in solitary confinement since June 2014.
In Azerbaijan
Leyla and Arif Yunus
Human rights activists Leyla Yunus and Arif Yunus were arrested separately in 2014 and convicted of economic crimes in August 2015 after a trial Amnesty denounced as “shockingly unjust.”
After Leyla Yunus was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison, and her husband to seven years, Amnesty said that the rulings showed the “continuous criminalization of human rights defenders in Azerbaijan.”
After the two were released on health grounds in late 2015 and their prison sentences reduced to suspended sentences, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered Azerbaijan to pay them approximately $45,660 for violating their basic rights.
In April 2016, they were allowed to leave the country and settled in the Netherlands.
In Uzbekistan
Azam Farmonov
In 2009, Amnesty called for the immediate release of rights activists Azam Farmonov and Alisher Karamatov, who were detained in 2006 while defending the rights of farmers in Uzbekistan who had accused local officials of extortion and corruption.
Amnesty said the two men had allegedly been tortured and declared them “prisoners of conscience.”
In 2012, Karamatov was released after serving nearly two-thirds of a nine-year prison sentence.
Farmonov served 10 years before his release in 2017, but reemerged in March when his U.S.-based NGO representing prisoners’ rights in Uzbekistan, Huquiqiy Tayanch, was successfully registered by the country’s Justice Ministry.
Written by Michael Scollon, with additional reporting by Golnaz Esfandiari
HOMEL, Belarus — A court in the southeastern Belarusian city of Homel has sentenced a 16-year-old youngster with a medical condition to five years in prison for participating in protests demanding the resignation of the authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Judge Dzmitry Deboy of the Chyhunachny district court on February 22 sentenced Mikita Zalatarou, along with two other defendants — 25-year-old Dzmitry Karneyeu and 28-year-old Leanid Kavalyou — after finding them guilty of taking part in “mass civil disobedience.”
Karneyeu and Kavalyou were sentenced to eight years and six years, respectively.
After the judge pronounced the sentences, Zalatarou, who has epilepsy, began throwing himself against the bars in the courtroom cage he and the other defendants were placed in, shouting “Let me out of here!”
His father said earlier that police had severely beaten his son right after his arrest in August 2020, and again while in pretrial detention.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
During the trial, the teenager also said that he had been beaten while in custody and deprived of the pills he needed to use on a daily basis to treat his medical condition.
“A prison guard told me when I asked for my medicine that ‘you are political and therefore you will turn away,’” the boy said at the trial.
The three were arrested in the wake of nationwide protests that started after Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, was declared the victor of an August 9 presidential election.
The country’s political opposition and many people in the country have said the poll was rigged.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence, some were handed prison terms, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding a new vote.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka will hold talks in Sochi on February 22 as the duo emerge from mass protests at home to face mounting pressure from the West.
The two leaders will meet in the Black Sea city to discuss economic ties, energy, security, and integration, among other issues, the Kremlin said last week.
The meeting comes the same day the European Union is expected to adopt fresh sanctions against Russia and possibly Belarus, ramping up pressure over a host of issues that have drawn the two neighbors closer in recent months.
The EU has progressively slapped sanctions on Belarus in response to the violent repression of peaceful protesters, the opposition, and media since an August 2020 election the bloc considers fraudulent that extended Lukashenka’s 26-year authoritarian rule.
The last time Putin and Lukashenka met face to face was in mid-September 2020 in Sochi, when Belarus secured a $1.5 billion loan for its battered economy. Since then, mass protests in Belarus have lost some of their steam during the frigid winter months amid a sweeping crackdown.
In recent years, Russia has pressured Belarus to take steps toward integration in order to cement a 20-year-old agreement to form a union state, only to be rebuffed by Lukashenka’s defense of the nation’s sovereignty.
However, the situation began to change after Russia helped prop up Lukashenka in the wake of the August presidential election, bringing the two sides closer over common threat perceptions.
“Minsk understands perfectly how important it is now to be on the right side of the Kremlin,” political analyst Artyom Shraibman wrote in an analysis for the Carnegie Moscow Center. “Lukashenka has tried many times to show that he and Putin are in the same boat against the collective West, and that the recent protests in Russia are a continuation of those in Belarus.”
Putin comes to Sochi with the threat of new Russia sanctions from the EU and Washington over the detention of opposition politician Aleksei Navalny and evidence the anti-corruption crusader was poisoned with a nerve agent he blames on Putin and FSB security agents.
Navalny’s detention in January upon his return from life-saving treatment in Germany and subsequent crackdown on some of the largest anti-government protests in a decade prompted international outrage.
WASHINGTON — The United States says it has imposed visa restrictions on 43 Belarusians “responsible for undermining” the country’s democracy, including several high-ranking officials.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on February 18 said in a statement that Washington remains alarmed by the “continuing violent crackdown on peaceful protesters, pro-democracy activists, and journalists” by the government controlled by authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The statement said the February 16 “raids on human rights organization Vyasna [Spring], the Belarusian Association of Journalists, and independent trade union workers, as well as the February 18 sentencing of journalists Katsyaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova are particularly troublesome.”
Andreyeva, 27, and Chultsova, 23, in their last statement in the courtroom, again rejected the charges against them, calling them politically motivated as their only reason to be at the protest was to do their job as reporters.
The State Department said it had imposed visa restrictions on 43 Belarusian individuals ”responsible for undermining Belarusian democracy, making them generally ineligible for entry into the United States.“
The individuals include “high-ranking justice sector officials; law-enforcement leaders, and rank-and-file personnel who detained and abused peaceful demonstrators; judges and prosecutors involved in sentencing peaceful protesters and journalists to prison terms; and academic administrators who threatened students for participation in peaceful protests,” the statement said.
“The United States continues to support international efforts to independently investigate electoral irregularities in Belarus, the human rights abuses surrounding the election, and the crackdown that has followed. We stand with the brave people of Belarus and support their right to free and fair elections.”
Tens of thousands of Belarusians have taken the streets, almost weekly, since August when Lukashenka claimed reelection in a vote that opponents called fraudulent.
The demonstrators are demanding that Lukashenka leave and new elections be held, but Belarus’s strongman has been defiant. Security officials have arrested thousands and forced top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.
The United States, European Union, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka’s claim of reelection and have slapped him and other senior officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
The 66-year-old Lukashenka has been in power for 26 years.
MINSK — Two journalists for Belsat, the Polish satellite television station aimed at Belarus, have each been sentenced to two years in prison for reporting live from a rally in Minsk in November.
On February 18, Judge Natallya Buhuk of the Frunze district court in the Belarusian capital, sentenced Katsyaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova after finding them guilty of “organizing public events aimed at disrupting civil order.”
Andreyeva and Chultsova, in their last statement in the courtroom, again rejected the charges against them, calling them politically motivated.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Andreyeva also demanded the “immediate release” of herself, Chultsova, and “all political prisoners in Belarus.”
The two journalists were arrested on November 15 while they were covering a rally in Minsk commemorating Raman Bandarenka.
Bandarenka died from injuries sustained in a vicious beating by a group of masked assailants — whom rights activists say were affiliated with the authorities — during one of the weekly rallies demanding the resignation of authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The two journalists have said they were at the protest solely to do their jobs when they were arrested.
Belarusian human rights organizations have recognized Andreyeva and Chultsova as political prisoners and demanded their immediate release and the dropping of all charges against them.
Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, was declared the landslide victor of an August 9 presidential election.
However, outrage over what was seen by both the opposition forces and the general public as a rigged vote has sparked continuous protests since, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets with demands that the longtime strongman step down and a new election be held.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding a new vote.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
The Biden administration should be massively boosting its funding to opposition groups in Belarus while increasing sanctions on the country in order to force out the current government, according to a discussion hosted by the highly influential Atlantic Council.
Kayla Popuchet is minoring in Slavic studies as part of her education in Latin American and Eastern European politics at City University of New York. Popuchet, who is also a regular contributor to Anticonquista and a New York City Housing Court Specialist, recently attended an online meeting about Belarus organised by the Atlantic Council, widely regarded as NATO’s unofficial think tank.
MINSK — Viktar Babaryka, a former Belarusian banker whose bid to challenge Alyaksandr Lukashenka in last year’s presidential election was halted by his arrest, has gone on trial.
Babaryka’s Telegram channel on February 17 showed him being brought to the courtroom at the Moscow district court in Minsk.
After he announced his intention to run for president, Babaryka, a former senior manager at the Russian-owned Belgazprombank, was arrested in June along with his son Eduard on charges of money laundering, bribery, and tax evasion.
Three days before their arrest, Belarusian authorities took control of the bank and detained more than a dozen top executives on charges of tax evasion and money laundering.
All of the accused reject the charges as politically motivated.
Dozens gathered on February 17 outside the court to support Babaryka. People waited in line to get inside the building. They were instructed not to have telephones and tablets with them.
People wait in line to enter the court on February 17.
The case is being heard by judges from the Belarusian Supreme Court, a move that has been criticized by Babaryka and his defense team, who said that would deny them any chance of appeal in case of a guilty verdict.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Lukashenka was declared the victor of the August 9 election, triggering protests by tens of thousands of Belarusians who say the vote was rigged. Protests have continued since then to demand Lukashenka, in power since 1994, step down.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands and pushing most top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and several rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.
Lukashenka denies voter fraud and has refused to negotiate with the opposition led by Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who supporters say actually won the August election.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
An advocacy group says that homophobic language and hate speech against transgender people is on the rise among European politicians and has warned about a backlash against the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the continent.
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said in its annual report published on February 16 that politicians in 17 countries in Europe and Central Asia have verbally attacked LGBT people over the past year.
The report highlighted Poland, where nationalist politicians from the ruling right-wing PiS party have criticized “LGBT ideology” during election campaigns. It also singled out Hungary, where transgender people last year were banned from legally changing gender.
The situation for LGBT people in Bulgaria and Romania could worsen this year, while in Turkey, ruling-party politicians have repeatedly attacked LGBT people, Evelyne Paradis, the association’s executive director, warned.
The trend of politicians verbally attacking LGBT people has also been on the rise in countries such as Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, and Russia, the report said.
In Belarus and Ukraine, some religious leaders have blamed LGBT people for the coronavirus pandemic. Hate speech on social media has grown in Montenegro, Russia, and Turkey, in traditional media in Ukraine, and is an ongoing issue in Georgia, North Macedonia, and Romania, the group said.
“There’s growing hate speech specifically targeting trans people and that is being reported more and more across the region….We have grave concerns that it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Paradis said.
In Central Asia, LGBT rights are stagnating or backsliding in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the report said, adding that in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, “we see windows of opportunity for advancing LGBT rights.”
The group said the pandemic has caused difficulties for some young LGBT people at home with homophobic families during lockdowns and given openings to politicians who attack gay and trans people as a way to shift attention from economic problems.
“LGBT communities are amongst the groups that get scapegoated in particular,” said Paradis.
They could be enjoying a peaceful retirement, but instead they’re taking to the streets and braving police violence. One Belarusian pensioner says that last year’s presidential election was a “slap in the face” for voters because the result was falsified. Another says it was his generation’s fault for first bringing Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power in 1994.
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has condemned ongoing mass searches of homes of journalists and rights defenders across the country. At least 25 homes of journalists, rights activists, and their relatives in Minsk and other towns and cities were searched by police and security service officers on February 16. The offices of the Vyasna (Spring) human rights center in Minsk [see https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/7b5ccf60-bf81-11ea-b6a7-3533a3c74ec1] and the headquarters of the Association of Belarusian Journalists were also searched.
Tsikhanouskaya issued a statement on Telegram, saying that those who are looking for “criminals” among journalists and rights defenders should look for criminals among themselves.
“This is the real crisis. In its attempt to cling to power, the regime is repressing those who are defending human rights. As long as this continues, all Belarusians are in danger,” Tsikhanouskaya’s statement says, adding, “Belarusians know how to solve this crisis.“
“With such measures [Belarusian President Alyaksandr] Lukashenka is gathering material for his own trial in an international court together with his associates. We have already forwarded information to the European Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council, asking them to undertake corresponding measures,” Tsikhanouskaya continued.
From Hong Kong to Myanmar and Belarus, the tactics and ethos of activists are transmitted at lightning speed
There is something uncannily familiar about the courageous protests against the army’s coup in Myanmar. They echo the country’s previous expressions of anti-military defiance. But they also evoke other scenes that played out more than 1,000 miles away. The helmets worn by those on the frontline, the walls bedecked with scrawled slogans on colourful sticky notes, and the flashmob-style demonstrations are all straight from the playbook of activists in Hong Kong in 2019 – literally. A manual of tactics, translated into Burmese, was shared thousands of times on social media.
In Thailand too – where pro-democracy protesters have demanded reforms to the monarchy and the removal of the prime minister, who originally took power in a coup – Hong Kong’s influence was evident, with the use of hand signals on the streets and votes on whether to take particular actions. It is not just an Asian phenomenon. Demonstrators in Belarus also held up umbrellas as security forces fired teargas. In Lebanon, they too used tennis rackets to hit back teargas canisters. The crackdown has silenced the streets of Hong Kong, with last year’s imposition of a draconian national security law followed by sweeping arrests. Yet the movement that swept through the city almost two years ago has found a strange afterlife, with activists around the world drawing not only upon specific tactics but above all upon its “be water” ethos of fluid, fast-shifting methods of protest and informal organisation.
When in 1990 U.S. Secretary of State James Baker assured Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not expand one inch eastward after German reunification, he was not alone in making that commitment. Documents declassified a few years ago establish that the same pledge was also made by President George H.W. Bush, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, CIA Director Robert Gates, French President Francois Mitterrand, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, British Prime Minister John Major, and NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner.
In August 2020, following the Belarusian presidential election, opposition protests began in the Eastern European country. The protesters, backed by imperialist forces abroad, called for the resignation of Alexander Lukashenko. In response, pro-government demonstrations were also held in defense of Lukashenko.
Since then, political tensions have remained high in Belarus, where the threat of a new color revolution looms. I recently spoke with Nadezhda Sablina, a Belarusian columnist for the Minskaya Pravda, a local paper in the country. Nadezhda provides an anti-imperialist overview for what is taking place.
MINSK — Opposition sources say that the Belarusian authorities have added charges including conspiracy to seize state power and organizing extremism to the cases of jailed opposition figures Maryya Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak.
Both are among the detained ranking members of the Coordination Council, an opposition group set up after Belarus’s disputed presidential election in August with the stated aim of facilitating a peaceful transfer of power.
News of the fresh prosecutions came after the first day of a Soviet-style “All-Belarusian People’s Assembly” mounted by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to float possible reforms and development in a move that appears designed to buy him time amid unprecedented protests against his regime.
Lawyer Dzmitry Layeuski and the Telegram channel of jailed would-be presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka disclosed the emergence of the new charges against Kalesnikava and Znak, which could carry prison sentences of up to 12 years.
The opposition says the election was rigged and the West has refused to accept its results.
Western governments have also repeatedly called for the release of senior opposition leaders and thousands of protesters jailed during months of crackdown on the street demonstrations against Lukashenka.
Kalesnikava and Znak were arrested in September and Kalesnikava was charged with calling for actions aimed at damaging the country’s national security via the media and the Internet after she urged people to protest the official election results.
Znak was previously charged with public calls for actions aimed at harming the country’s security, sovereignty, territorial integrity, national security, and defense.
Both have rejected the charges as politically motivated.
Crisis In Belarus
Read our coverage as Belarusians take to the streets to demand the resignation of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and call for new elections after official results from the August 9 presidential poll gave Lukashenka a landslide victory.
Mass demonstrations engulfed the country after Lukashenka claimed victory and a sixth consecutive term.
Opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran for president after her husband was jailed while trying to mount a candidacy of his own, left the country for Lithuania shortly after the election due to security concerns.
Thousands of Belarusians, including dozens of journalists covering the protests, have been detained and hundreds beaten in detention and on the streets.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some detainees.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
The 66-year-old Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, opened the two-day “People’s Assembly” on February 11 by saying that a foreign “blitzkrieg” on Belarus had failed.
The U.S. Embassy in Belarus issued a statement on February 11 saying that the assembly was “neither genuine nor inclusive of Belarusian views and therefore does not address the country’s ongoing political crisis.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union are launching a 40 million euro ($48.5 million) regional program to help six Eastern European countries with COVID-19 vaccinations.
The program will involve Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the EU and UN health agency said on February 11.
“By strengthening preparedness and readiness of the countries for vaccinations, this program will prepare the countries for the effective receipt and administering of vaccines, including those from COVAX and through vaccine-sharing mechanisms with EU member states,” the European Commission said.
COVAX is a global initiative aimed at providing shots to poorer countries.
The six countries are part of the Eastern Partnership that seeks to strengthen ties between the EU and several Eastern European states.
The EU will pay for the vaccine program over a three-year period while the WHO will help implement it.
MINSK – Alyaksandr Lukashenka has opened a Soviet-style “All-Belarusian People’s Assembly” to discuss reforms and the country’s development for the next five years, including possible amendments to the constitution, in an apparent move to survive ongoing mass protests against his rule, which the authoritarian ruler has blamed on the West.
Lukashenka, 66, who has run the country since 1994, opened the assembly’s two-day session on February 11 saying that a foreign “blitzkrieg” on Belarus had failed.
“A color revolution in Belarus was impossible. That is why, by getting support from certain domestic forces, [foreign nations] attempted to organize not a color revolution, but a mutiny on the principle of a blitzkrieg. The blitzkrieg failed. We have managed to hold our country. For now…We must hold on no matter what. And this year, 2021, will be the decisive year,” Lukashenka said, addressing some 2,700 delegates to the assembly, mainly pro-government officials and people selected by the authorities.
Lukashenka’s opponents have dismissed the assembly as a sham exercise to help him to cling to power after he claimed victory in an election last year that the opposition leaders and the West has said was rigged.
The U.S. Embassy in Belarus issued a statement on February 11 saying that the assembly was a not real dialogue with people.
The assembly “is neither genuine nor inclusive of Belarusian views and therefore does not address the country’s ongoing political crisis. The government has jailed Belarusian protest leaders, activists, and dissidents — often on falsified charges — and forcibly exiled others. The political prisoners, those in exile, and the estimated 30,000 others arrested since August 2020 deserve the right to a voice in determining their country’s future through a genuine, inclusive dialogue — as well as through free and fair elections,” the U.S. Embassy statement said.
“The OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism Report provides a clear, specific road map to inclusiveness,” the statement said, citing a paper issued by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
“The United States urges the regime to accept the OSCE Chairmanship’s offer to facilitate a genuine, inclusive national dialogue,” it added.
Public Outrage
Opposition and public outrage over what was widely seen as a rigged vote in the August 9 election has sparked continuous protests since, bringing tens of thousands onto the streets with demands that Lukashenka step down and new elections be held.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
Father and son sought refuge after protests but are becoming a diplomatic issue for Sweden
Two Belarusians who sought refuge in the Swedish embassy in Minsk in September are still there five months later, Sweden’s foreign ministry has announced, in a case turning into a diplomatic headache.
Two journalists for the Polish-funded Belsat satellite television station have gone on trial in Minsk. They are charged with “organizing public events aimed at disrupting civil order.” Katsyaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova were arrested on November 15 while they were covering a rally in Minsk commemorating anti-government protester Raman Bandarenka, who died from injuries sustained in a beating by a group of masked assailants. Rights activists allege the attackers were affiliated with the government of authoritarian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka. As the trial started on February 9, the two journalists said that they were just doing their jobs when they were arrested. If found guilty, the two women face up to three years in prison.
Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has designated February 7 a Day of Solidarity with Belarus, calling on international leaders, activists, journalists, and all friends of Belarus to support protesters who have been demanding the resignation of strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and new elections.
“Since the fraudulent presidential election of August 9th, 2020, Belarusians have demanded democracy and freedom, staying persistent and courageous in spite of the regime’s lawlessness,” Tsikhanouskaya said in announcing the Day of Solidarity at her website.
Tsikhanouskaya suggested people show their solidarity with those who protest daily in Belarus “and thank them for their bravery and strong will.”
She recommended holding rallies, posting support on social media, writing letters to political prisoners, and lighting the facades of buildings in red and white – the colors of the Belarus opposition movement.
She also invited people to join an online solidarity conference on February 6, which included discussions on Belarus and the launch of the Belarusian People’s Embassies.
Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek, who participated in the conference, told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service that the ministry would express its concern “about the repression that we still see in Belarus” to mark the Day of Solidarity.
He said, however, that there currently are no proposals for additional EU sanctions, but “Belarus remains high on the agenda, and foreign ministers regularly discuss what steps need to be taken.”
Tsikhanouskaya has called on the European Union and the United States to be “braver and stronger” in their actions to help end the Lukashenka’s disputed rule.
“The international response is still too modest,” Tsikhanouskaya said on January 27 during an online event with several EU foreign ministers.
The United States and the European Union on February 5 said they backed the Day of Solidarity and hailed the demonstrators.
“We continue to be amazed by the exceptional strength, resilience, and courage of the Belarusian people in the face of unyielding repression,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
“They continue to demand freedom and democracy. The world has been inspired by the people of Belarus, especially Belarusian women peacefully demonstrating for the right to have a voice in Belarus’ future,” Price said.
He added that the United States backed a “peaceful and inclusive dialogue” in Belarus.
The European Union issued a similar statement, saying that “many thousands” have been detained in Belarus and pointing to “hundreds of documented cases of torture.”
“The European Union continues to stand firmly with the people of Belarus,” said in a statement by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and enlargement coordinator Oliver Varhelyi, promising economic support for a democratic Belarus.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her weekly podcast on February 6, said she has been “deeply impressed” by Belarus’ democracy movement.
“The calculation by those in power seemed to be that the world would forget these brave people. We cannot let that happen,” said Merkel, adding that the Belarusian government needed to put an end to violence against peaceful demonstrators.
Lukashenka’s declaration of victory in the election has sparked continuous protests that have seen tens of thousands take to the streets demanding he leaves.
Lukashenka, who has run the country since 1994, has denied any wrongdoing and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands and pushing most top opposition figures out of the country. Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used against some of those detained.
The European Union, United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka, 66, as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have slapped him and senior Belarusian officials with sanctions in response to the “falsification” of the vote and postelection crackdown.
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, dpa, and AFP
