{"id":11312,"date":"2021-12-23T02:44:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T23:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/after-weeding-out-unwanted-groups-authorities-plan-to-create-imitated-parties-civil-society-analyst-says\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"after-weeding-out-unwanted-groups-authorities-plan-to-create-imitated-parties-civil-society-analyst-says","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11312\/","title":{"rendered":"After weeding out unwanted groups, authorities plan to create imitated parties, civil society \u2013 analyst says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>In yet another repressive move, the Belarusian legislature has passed a bill that would criminalize involvement in activities of unregistered groups, including political parties, and groups stripped of official registration. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<h2> <span>Old repressive practices<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The bill, if adopted, would carry a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years. It was rushed through the lower chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly on December 21. The National Assembly went into recess on December 22.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The bill would reinstate notorious Article 1931, which was annulled in 2019 under pressure from the public and the West.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities had used that article to punish 17 activists; five of them were sentenced to prison.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Jahora\u016d: some groups are still alive<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The government is seeking to make sure that nothing is allowed without its permission, said Andrej Jahora\u016d, of the European Transformation Center.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In the last few months, the government closed or has been in the process of closing more than 300 nonprofits, said the Viasna Human Rights Center, one of the outlawed groups.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cWe will slaughter all the scoundrels that you [the West] have financed,\u201d Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka told BBC last month.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The government has shut down the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Union of Belarusian Writers, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, \u201cTell the Truth!\u201d, the Movement for Freedom and other reputable organizations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Some nonprofit leaders have been arrested, others fled the country. Some leaders and activists remain in Belarus. They might face criminal charges if they continue their activity.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Yet, some initiatives are still alive, Jahora\u016d said, but he would not cite any examples for fear of reprisals.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Imitated society<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The government has already enacted enough laws that enable it persecute groups it would like to eliminate, said Andrej Kazakievi\u010d, of the Political Sphere think tank. The law enforcement agencies have used anti-extremist laws to harass dissidents.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cThe government cannot control everything,\u201d he said, noting that nonprofits will continue to function underground.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Authorities are looking to weed out the political playing field and create loyal, government-controlled non-governmental organizations for imitating political plurality and civil society, Kazakievi\u010d told BPN. Officials have been discussing it for several months.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka suggested on October 1 that the government should write a law to list organizations that are allowed to operate in the country as civil society.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He had tasked the Ministry of Justice with re-registering political parties before January 1.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Kazakievi\u010d: political landscape to change<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The authorities are likely to outlaw most or all opposition parties, and may let two or three pro-government political parties take the center stage, Kazakievi\u010d said. The parties would receive establishment support and extensive coverage in the state media, he added.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t As wary of political parties as he is, Luka\u0161enka may even block this reform for fear that Moscow may use the few remaining political parties to deepen its footprint in Belarus, he noted.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He is also skeptical about the government\u2019s attempt to establish a pro-government third sector. \u201cSociety needs something different, not pro-government bureaucracy,\u201d Kazakievi\u010d said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A poll by Chatham House found that few Belarusians trusted pro-government organizations in July and August. Only 18 percent of respondents said they had confidence in government-run trade unions.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Laws cannot force Belarusians to recognize organizations led by government-appointed bureaucrats as civil society. But the government has a plan and is determined to put it into practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN In yet another repressive move, the Belarusian legislature has passed a bill that would criminalize involvement in activities of unregistered groups, including political parties, and groups stripped of official registration. Old repressive practices The bill, if adopted, would carry a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11312","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After weeding out unwanted groups, authorities plan to create imitated parties, civil society \u2013 analyst says | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN In yet another repressive move, the Belarusian legislature has passed a bill that would criminalize involvement in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11312\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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