New additions to extremist content include MOST, social media accounts

April 19, BPN. Viciebsk’s Kastryčnicky District Court on April 13 labeled the Odnoklassniki account of a prominent local blogger “extremist content,” according to the information ministry’s records.

Alona Januškoŭskaja, whose account is titled Nastoyashchaya Belarus (Eng. “a Real Belarus”) and has 1,471 subscribers, left Belarus in 2021, fleeing political persecution. She had been repeatedly arrested for live broadcasts from anti-government demonstrations in Minsk and Viciebsk.

On the same day, Minsk’s Centralny District Court banned the Alisa Rasskazyvayet Telegram channel, which has 1,369 subscribers and distributes news concerning the United Resistance Headquarters, a resistance group that is critical of opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja and works toward the release of political prisoners and “freeing Belarus from dictatorship.”

The Žlobin District Court, Homiel region, banned Zhlobin Dlia Zhizni Chat, an opposition news channel in Telegram linked to former presidential hopeful Siarhiej Cichanoŭski.

The Krupki District Court, Minsk region, banned several opposition social media accounts, including MOST Media with 36,500 subscribers, Zmahar with 10,700 subscribers, and Nerusso Turisto with 49,900 subscribers.

The Baranavičy District Court, Brest region, on April 17 banned Partyzanka, a telegram channel featuring news about Belarus, political prisoners and Belarusian communities abroad. It has 8,500 subscribers.

The list of extremist content also contains the book by Sergei Siuziev, “Двадцать лет рабства: Беларусь сегодня” (Twenty Years of Slavery: Belarus Today), critical of Alaksandr Łukašenka’s policies. It was added by the Prosecutor General’s Office. The book is available at Russian online bookstores.