Vadim Evgrafovich Prokopiev

Vadim is a businessman, founder and deputy commander of the Pagonya regiment, and has been outside of Belarus since 2020. In June 2023, he was convicted in absentia on charges of politically motivated terrorism and numerous criminal offenses. He was sentenced to a long prison term and a fine, and stripped of all his military ranks.

According to the indictment, from July 2020 to January 2022, an "organized criminal group operated in Belarus, Turkey, Poland, Ukraine and other countries with the goal of committing extremist crimes. It included radical individuals, including former and current military personnel, law enforcement officers, athletes and businessmen, who sought to seize power illegally." The case involves charges of attempting to set fire to the home of MP Oleg Gaidukevich in June 2021 and "organizing mass riots."

For the second time, as part of a special proceeding, Vadim was convicted in December of the same year under articles on “inciting hatred and discord,” “slander and insult of Lukashenko,” and “insulting a government official.”

In December 2024, it became known that a new special case had been opened against Vadim on four more criminal charges, including “creation of an extremist group” and “undergoing training to participate in extremist activity.”