A resident of Vitebsk, Alexander Potapov, received two years in a penal colony for comments in Odnoklassniki criticizing Alexander Lukashenko.
During the shelling of Kyiv by Russian troops, Potapov lost his daughter, and his niece lost her leg. On July 8 and 16, he wrote two comments in which he spoke about the launch of missiles from Belarus towards Ukraine. In them, he mentioned Lukashenka, as a result of which he was charged with two episodes under Part 1 of Art. 368 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (insulting the president).
Lukashenka regularly promotes repressive policies against opposition-minded citizens of Belarus. So, in early November, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus included the slogan “Long live Belarus!” (“Long live Belarus!”), which was widely used by the opposition during the 2020 protests, was included in the list of Nazi symbols and paraphernalia.
