Belarus, Russia looking to merge “extremist lists”

February 6, Pozirk. Minsk and Moscow are working towards merging their “lists of extremists and extremist sources,” state media reported, quoting Belarusian Ambassador to Russia Dźmitryj Krutoj.

He said the idea had been discussed more than once by the foreign ministers.

“Citizens are perplexed when some of the sources recognized as extremist, for example, in Russia publish messages in our country, and vice versa – those we have recognized as extremist publish messages in Russia. And criminal cases are not filed against the organizations or people who, for instance, have run to the Russian Federation or vice versa,” the diplomat said.

He expressed hope that “this will be solved soon.”

Belarusian security services are running a number of “extremist lists.” The list of “extremist groups” contains 178 organizations (202 entries), the list of persons “involved in extremist activities” – 3,753 people, the list of “extremist content” – about 1,100 pages, each with dozens of book titles, individual articles, websites and social media pages. After 2020, the authorities added critics to these lists.

The joint federal list of organizations Russia has declared extremist includes 50 entries and the list of extremist content, about 5,400.