Potential persecutions

Candidate of Historical Sciences, adjunct at the Historical Institute of the University of Wroclaw. Melnikov specialized in military history and the history of the period of Western Belarus being part of Poland (1921-1939). He published a dozen and a half books on the topic of Western Belarus. In 2020, he was awarded the L. Sapega Prize for the preservation of the historical heritage of Belarus.

It is known for certain that he was arrested and is being held in a pre-trial detention center, but there is no specificity either about the date of his arrest or about what Melnikov is accused of.

Melnikov’s last activity on Instagram dates back to January 21, 2024.

Presumably detained in February 2024.

According to the prosecution , from August 10 to August 11, 2020, at that time, minors Yulia Sharanova, Nikita Voytyuk, Nikolay Nikityuk, as well as Vasily Alekseyuk, Gleb Klimovich, Vitaly Varfalameev, Alexander Tysevich, Maxim Sobolev, were on the roadway of Masherov Avenue, Cosmonauts Boulevards and Shevchenko, st. Soviet in Brest, “ they shouted slogans, demonstrated white-red-white canvases, grossly violating public order, deliberately impeding the movement of vehicles and the normal functioning of enterprises and organizations.”

At the court hearing, everyone fully admitted their guilt.

It is also known that Maxim Sobolev, Gleb Klimovich, Yulia Sharanova were convicted, including on “narcotic” charges.

Maxim Sobolev under Part 1 of Art. 342 of the Criminal Code was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. But since Maxim was already convicted under the “narcotic” part 4 of Art. 328 of the Criminal Code, by partial addition of the main punishments and the full addition of an additional punishment, 12 years in prison were sentenced to serve in a correctional colony under a high security regime with a fine of 3,200 rubles.

According to the prosecution , from August 10 to August 11, 2020, at that time, minors Yulia Sharanova, Nikita Voytyuk, Nikolay Nikityuk, as well as Vasily Alekseyuk, Gleb Klimovich, Vitaly Varfalameev, Alexander Tysevich, Maxim Sobolev, were on the roadway of Masherov Avenue, Cosmonauts Boulevards and Shevchenko, st. Soviet in Brest, “ they shouted slogans, demonstrated white-red-white canvases, grossly violating public order, deliberately impeding the movement of vehicles and the normal functioning of enterprises and organizations.”

At the court hearing, everyone fully admitted their guilt.

It is reported that Yulia Sharanova participated in the protests when she was 16 years old. It is also known that Maxim Sobolev, Gleb Klimovich, Yulia Sharanova were convicted, including on “narcotic” charges.

Yulia Sharanova was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for participating in the August protest. But due to the fact that she was convicted under Part 4 of Art. 328 of the Criminal Code, she was eventually sentenced to 13 years in prison under general regime conditions with a fine of 3,700 rubles.

In the pro-government film (April 2024), it was said that six teenagers allegedly united in the “anarchist cell “Black Nightingales,” which “under the leadership of the National Liberation Army of Ukraine” was created by 16-year-old Ukrainian citizen Maria Misyuk.

ONT employees claim that the teenagers united to carry out sabotage on a tip in Belarus, and then in Russia. Maria is accused under Part 2 of Art. 289 of the Criminal Code (act of terrorism). According to the story, 16-year-old Maria Misyuk moved with her family from Ukraine to Belarus in 2022, where she created an “anarchist cell for preparing terrorist attacks.” Among the detainees are college students in Baranovichi, Nesvizh, Mir, Minsk and Luninets. These are Trofim Borisov, Sergey Zhigalev , Dmitry Zahoroshko, Anastasia Klimenko and Alexandra Pulinovich. According to ONT employees, young people gathered at the Baranovichi apartment to prepare for their first serious action - to collect explosives and blow up the Baranovichi police department or prosecutor's office. It is unknown under what charges the remaining five participants are accused. As well as their status and location are unknown.

Denis Nikita was detained on the evening of January 25, 2024 for petty hooliganism. He was taken to the police department on duty. He did not agree with the detention and allegedly began to make insults and threats towards the police officers, while mentioning Lukashenko. According to the police, the 38-year-old man did this for a long time and humiliated him repeatedly. As a result, a criminal case was initiated. The man was tried publicly in the building of the Svisloch regional executive committee. The district newspaper reported on the trial: it said that “representatives of the public” and the media were present at the meeting. Denis Nikita admitted guilt.

It is reported that this is the 11th conviction of the accused. He was convicted of theft, torture, threats to kill, as well as for violating the requirements of preventive supervision, and was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility. In addition, the man was deprived of parental rights in relation to two children.

Gorelov was the head of the Belinvestbank directorate for the Gomel region. The last news about him dates back to February 2023, and in December 2023, Pavel Yurkovets, the former head of Belinvestbank in Mozyr, was appointed head instead of him.

The trial of Oleg Gorelov began on February 8 in the Gomel Regional Court.

On June 14, 2024, the appeal was considered and the verdict entered into force.

As far as is known, the man was once a soldier in the 38th Separate Guards Air Assault Brigade. Subsequently, Dmitry worked as a military commissar at the Brest military commandant's office, and also taught at the military faculty of BSU. There is even a textbook that he co-authored for BSU in 2020.

The date of Pozdnyakov’s arrest is unknown. Dmitry was convicted on November 20, 2023 in the Brest Regional Court. He was charged with Part 2 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code - “Treason to the state committed by an official.” It carries a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison. It is unknown what punishment the paratrooper received.

On January 16, 2024, an appeal took place in the Pozdnyakov case. The verdict came into force.

It is unknown when the man was detained, but the last time he was online was on his VKontakte page on December 29, 2022, although he used to visit there regularly.

It is known that in 2015 the man lived in Poland. And in 2019 and 2021 he wrote that he lives in Germany, works in artificial intelligence and works for the German company EDEKA GmbH/WITRON. His main messengers were tied to a German number, and his mailbox was on a German domain, that is, he lived permanently in Germany.

According to CyberPartisan, Novogrodsky has not officially worked in Belarus since 2011 and has three children from different women.

As Nasha Niva writes, Alexey is interested in philosophy and participated in thematic conferences - for example, in April 2021, he made a report “Consciousness and Artificial Intelligence” at the scientific conference “Philosophy and Challenges of Modernity,” which was organized by the Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

The press service said that in March-April 2022, the convict posted messages in an “extremist” chat aimed at “exacerbating tension in society and destabilizing the situation in the Republic of Belarus.” He also wrote “negative messages and comments discrediting the Republic of Belarus” and insulting officials and Lukashenko.

Herman partially admitted his guilt at the trial.

The man was detained after 2021. Botwich was charged with two counts of “espionage” and “undercover activity.” We are talking about a 59-year-old man who, although he does not have Belarusian citizenship, grew up and lived in Belarus. This is Sergei Ivanovich Botvich - he owned companies whose total turnover amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some of them were registered in the EU.

According to the telegram channel “Vitebsk, I’m playing,” Sergei Zaitsev was charged with writing two comments about a government official, which the court considered offensive, in a telegram channel that was recognized as “extremist.” It is not reported who exactly was offended by the Vitebsk resident’s comments.

According to the prosecution, Zaitsev, while on the territory of the Russian Federation, posted a text containing a negative assessment of a government official on a Telegram channel that is recognized as “extremist.” The accused also left a similar insult to another government official in the Vitebsk region.

At the trial, Sergei admitted guilt, but noted that he did not know that the victims were government officials. It is reported that Zaitsev was previously convicted 11 times.

As a result, the Vitebsk District Court found him guilty on December 6, 2023 and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison with a fine of 50 basic units. By partial addition of the punishment imposed under this verdict and the punishment imposed by the verdict of the Pervomaisky District Court of Vitebsk dated June 2, 2023, a final sentence of imprisonment for a term of five years was imposed, with the sentence being served in a correctional colony under conditions.

Ukrainian, living in Belarus since 2013. In 2012-2013, Ivan served in the intelligence units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, BelTA claims. The investigation believes that in January of this year Likholat got in touch with the SBU, where he was instructed to blow up the railway tracks. He involved two Grodno residents who had professional mine-explosive skills for the task. Pukhalsky was detained when he took an explosive device from a cache in the Kobrin district and transported it to the Tolochin district. Likholat and Borodich were detained in Grodno.

The investigation believes that in January 2023, Ivan Likholat contacted the SBU, where he was instructed to blow up the railway tracks. He involved two Grodno residents who had professional mine-explosive skills for the task. One of them was Ivan Borodich.

Likholat and Borodich were detained in Grodno.

He didn’t buy a ticket on the trolleybus while he was drunk and cursed the president with obscene words. The controller called the police and Sergei was detained.