Owner of blacklisted souvenir store leaves Belarus

January 2, BPN. Juryj Kazakievič, owner of the Belarusian souvenir store Roskvit in Baranavičy, Brest region, has left Belarus and is now safe, he told BPN.

“I always treated the store not as a commercial project, but as a social and political one,” he said. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to keep going on for so long. It turned out that the authorities treated it the same way. During the last two years, I had a strong feeling that the pressure [on me] was linked to the store operation in addition to my participation in protests.” 

Authorities closed Roskvit after Kazakievič’s arrest for allegedly distributing extremist content and forced him to purge his social media, threatening with criminal persecution, he said. Eventually, charges of illegal entrepreneurial activities convinced him to leave Belarus as soon as possible, Kazakievič added.

“It became clear that I would soon find myself either abroad or behind bars,” Kazakievič said. “I never wanted to leave, I don’t even have a visa, but I had to.”

A few months ago, police searched Kazakevič’s home and store. In late November, a court in the Brest region blacklisted the Roskvit’s website and Instagram page with 490 followers as extremist content. 

Authorities used various excuses to close down a number of independent stores selling Belarusian merchandise. Pavieł Biełavus, founder and owner of the Symbal.by store, is in custody since November 2021 and faces charges of high treason, creating an extremist group and participating in protests.