Tag Archives: belarus

Russia and its ally Belarus on Tuesday launched a second stage of drills intended to train their troops in tactical nuclear weapons, part of the Kremlin’s efforts to discourage the West from ramping up support for Ukraine. In announcing the nuclear maneuvers last month, the Russian Defense Ministry said they were in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain …

U.N. human rights experts have appealed to Belarusian authorities to help a political prisoner who has been diagnosed with an advanced form of cancer. The experts expressed the “utmost concern” about the denial of medical assistance to Pavel Kuchynski, 29, who was detained in 2022 and sentenced to four years and nine months in prison on charges on insulting the …

Authorities in Belarus on Thursday announced raids and the seizure of property belonging to 104 opposition activists who have fled the country, the latest step in a crackdown on dissent that has continued unabated for nearly four years. Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, unleashed the crackdown in August 2020, when mass protests erupted against his rule following his disputed reelection …

Belarus on Tuesday launched drills involving missiles and warplanes capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons, which close ally Russia has deployed there amid tensions with the West over Ukraine. The Belarusian maneuvers began a day after Russia announced plans to hold similar drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons in what it cast as a response to statements by …

Polish prosecutors opened an investigation Monday after a Polish judge fled to the autocratic state of Belarus and asked for protection there. The National Prosecutor’s Office said it is looking into suspicions that the judge was acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. According to Belarus state media, Judge Tomasz Szmydt told journalists in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, that …

Belarus’ exiled opposition leader said Thursday that she hasn’t heard from her imprisoned husband for 421 days. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said holding her husband incommunicado is part of the government’s repressive policies. BELARUS’ AUTHORITARIAN LEADER TIGHTENS CONTROL OVER THE COUNTRY’S RELIGIOUS GROUPS Siarhei Tsikhanouski has been behind bars since being arrested in 2020 after announcing plans to challenge Belarus’ authoritarian President …

Belarusian authorities on Monday declared that the Belarusian service of the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle is an “extremist” organization and banned all its activities in the country. The declaration means anyone working with Deutsche Welle producing content for the Belarusian service potentially faces a seven-year prison sentence. Anyone who reads and reposts articles by Deutsche Welle could be found …

A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated the network of the country’s main KGB security agency and accessed personnel files of over 8,600 employees of the organization, which still goes under its Soviet name. The authorities have not commented on the claim, but the website of the Belarusian KGB was opening with an empty page on Friday that …

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian hacker activist group claims to have infiltrated computers at the country’s largest fertilizer plant to pressure the government to release political prisoners. The state-run Grodno Azot plant has made no comment on the claim by the Belarusian Cyber-Partisans group to have done damage including destroying backup systems and encrypted internal mail, document flow and …

The Belarusian parliament on Wednesday voted to suspend the country’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty that once was a key security doctrine for the continent, a 1990 agreement that was abandoned last year by Russia. The bill, introduced by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko earlier this month, could pave the way for Belarus — Russia’s ally in the …