A large pro-Putin resource is recognized as extremist in Belarus
The Belarusian court has once again delivered a surprise. The Baranovichi District Court and the city of Baranovichi in Brest Oblast have declared the Telegram channel of the Russian online resource Daily Storm and the website itself extremist. The editors are, to put it mildly, perplexed. Typically, adding a media resource to their list requires clear grounds—support for anti-government activists, fake news, calls for sanctions, or at least criticism of Lukashenko personally and his policies.
The problem is that the publication is little known in Belarus and has never focused on Belarusian topics, limiting itself to news feeds and avoiding criticism of the country's leadership and political course. Daily Storm, a conservative and pro-Putin publication, was officially registered with Roskomnadzor back in 2017 and has never had any such legal issues. No reasons have been disclosed for this decision. The publication's editor-in-chief, Alexei Tarazevich, says the editorial staff learned of the court's decision from the news, that no one was involved in the legal proceedings, and that lawyers are currently reviewing the matter and assessing the situation and next steps.
In Belarus, there are three "extremist lists ," each of which carries different consequences: the list of extremist materials, the list of extremist organizations, and the list of extremist formations.
The first of these , where the Russian internet resource and its Telegram channel were unlucky enough to end up, is the most extensive, containing approximately 500 pages and is regularly updated. Administrative penalties for distributing extremist materials include a fine, community service, or even administrative arrest. Moreover, the person who posted the extremist content itself is not necessarily punished. Any hyperlink to a resource included in this list is sufficient. And there are examples of such court decisions. Recently, 74-year-old former USSR Supreme Soviet deputy Nikolai Petrushchenko received 10 days of administrative arrest for reposting an article about a sports event involving his family six years ago.
The second list is shorter, but the penalties are more severe. Criminal penalties. Either a large fine or up to three years in prison. For example, the company "TUT BY MEDIA," which until 2021 published the most visited internet resource, was declared an extremist organization. Now, even posting its logo in Belarus can lead to criminal prosecution.
And finally, the third category is extremist groups. This is where things get really serious. The list currently includes around 150 entries, from the "Kalinowski Regiment" to a certain chat called Xinkalik, but these are mostly various Telegram channels. Subscribers to these channels are considered members of such groups and face up to seven years in prison.
And this is a very real threat. A local police officer recently came to my house to inspect my phone for "extremist subscriptions ." But I'm a political journalist and am used to hedging my bets against such risks, while the average person is unlikely to regularly monitor a 500-page tome and purge content that has become seditious from their social media. What can we say about a Russian publication that has no connection whatsoever to the Belarusian legal system and whose editorial staff, until recently, likely had no idea that any extremist lists exist in Belarus or the consequences of being included on them?
Until now, officially registered Russian media outlets in Belarus have apparently never been included on extremist lists. There have been blocks, and some have been added to "undesirable" lists. PolitNavigator also faced these problems at one point. But to immediately label someone as extremist and for no apparent reason...
This is an unpleasant precedent. Belarus has clearly overdone this law enforcement practice. If this continues, virtually any Russian website that covered the 2020 protests and the 2021 TUT BY MEDIA trial could end up on Belarusian blacklists.
English version :: Read in English A major pro-Putin website has been declared extremist in Belarus.