Freed journalist to keep up YouTube project

February 25, BPN. Freed footballer, journalist and blogger Alaksandr Ivulin says he will continue to work on his YouTube project ChestnOK.

When he served his sentence, the project was managed by his co-author, journalist Jarasłaŭ Pisarenka.

“The channel is here to stay, and we will think how to have both Jaryk and me here,” Ivulin said on YouTube on February 25.

“We really want to do something Belarusian for Belarusians,” he added.

On February 24, the Bysol Foundation organized crowdfunding for the freed journalist. The requested €3,100 were gathered in less than a day.

Thanking the foundation and donors for support, Ivulin said he would spend the money on a laptop, a phone and “health issues.”

ChestnOK has more than 80,000 subscribers on YouTube.

The general public learned of Ivulin’s release on February 23, when he had already left Belarus. He now stays in Tbilisi.

The journalist had been in custody since June 2021. First, authorities jailed him for allegedly displaying a white-red-white flag in his apartment’s window. Later, he was charged with participating in protests over pictures from 2020 protest rallies.

Authorities also said Ivulin’s ChestnOK YouTube channel allegedly contained videos with negative assessments of the Belarusian government that discredited the political and social situation in the country.

In January 2022, Ivulin was given a two-year prison term. He served it at Penal Colony No 22 in the Ivacevičy district, Brest region.