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Belarus: “15+2=17″ - Bloggers React to Executions of Kanavalau and Kavalyou

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 05:58:17 +0000

At TOL's East of Center, Jeremy Druker and Anna Shamanska review and translate some of the reactions from the Belarusian blogosphere to last week's executions of the two young men convicted for the 2011 Minsk subway bombing: “Many Belarussian users on [… Vkontakte …] used pictures of Kavalyou and Kanavalau as their profile, along with the mathematical equation 15+2=17. The 15 stands for the number of victims of the metro bombing and the two for Kanavalau and Kavalyou themselves.”

Belarus: Independence Day Clapping Protest (Videos)

Alexey Sidorenko — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:18:06 +0000

Streets of several Belarusian towns and cities were flooded with people on Belarus Independence Day on July 3, 2011. People just stood there, clapping.

They showed up for the clapping protest, even though clapping was officially forbidden on that day and the Vkontakte social network group that had coordinated the action had been deleted. As they said, they came not even to protest, but rather to fight the fear inside them.

Clapping - a crime?

As in the previous cases, the Belarusian government has been amazingly creative in its attempts to discourage people from gathering in the streets.

On June 28, Viktor Golovanov, the Belarusian Minister of Justice, said [ru] that the moment a large group of people came to “the square” and started clapping, “their freedom would end and the freedom of those who […] came to the square to rest or to walk with their children would begin.” “This [clapping] crowd disturbs them [the ordinary people],” he said. He added that the clapping people would be moved to another location.

On July 2, 2011, a video was released [ru], which said that the non-violent protests in Belarus had been planned by the United States and urged Belarusians not to succumb to U.S. propaganda.

Police Twitterer @GUVD_Minsk continued to play a “good cop,” giving advice [ru], sharing pictures [ru], tweeting about getting journalists released [ru], and trying to help [ru] human rights activists.

A Vkontakte group “Against the Orange Revolution in Belarus” [ru], created against the non-violent protests, hasn't been very successful: its audience does not exceed 2,000 members.

A 'girl-tractor' and perhaps the only person in Minsk who was allowed to clap. Photo by Anton Motolko, used with permission.

On July 3, a Vkontakte group “Future Movement” (with over 216,000 members) was closed. It was restored only on July 4 (at the moment, only 17,000 members have re-joined the group). Facebook groups (1, 2, 3), which were used as substitutes, didn't have even a small part of the audience of the deleted group. Vkontakte explained [ru] that the group had violated the terms of use and its members had been sending spam to other users.

A truly Kafkian parade vs a clapping action

This year's Independence Day parade wasn't usual, either. Aside from the military parade, it featured the appearance of Alexander Lukashenko with his son Nikolay, who was wearing a military uniform, just like his father. This led some twitterers to conclude that Lukashenko had already found a successor. There were also some grotesque kids with flags that had “God is With Us” written on them, a boy-tractor and a girl-tractor, hockey players on roller blades, and much more (see a complete report at Anton Motolko's blog [ru] and the video of Lukashenko's speech [ru]).

On the same day, a less bizarre, but nonetheless Kafkian events happened at the Minsk Railway Station Square (as well as in other places in Belarus). The police kept its word and detained all the clapping people (videos 1, 2).

The most intense videos, which became actively tweeted and re-tweeted, were the following: 1, 2, 3:

Aside from offline actions, the Belarusian security services have been actively using Internet blocking. For some time, social network LiveJournal was unstable [ru], the uploading speed was intentionally decreased [ru] to 2 megabytes per second.

Summing up

Harsh reactions on the crackdown followed. A Swedish twitterer and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt tweeted:

Independent thought banned on Independence Day in Belarus. They closed down social media. A regime waiting to collapse. #belarus

Pavel Sheremet, a Russian journalist, wrote [ru]:

Лукашенко страшно, очень страшно. Он сходит с ума, когда слышит аплодисменты. Поэтому в воскресенье хлопать президенту не разрешали даже ветеранам.
[…]
Спецслужбы бесятся. Они начали массированную атаку на молодежь еще накануне. Еще в субботу арестовали несколько десятков человек, как им казалось, - организаторов акции.
[…]
Но люди все равно вышли. Тысячи людей по всей стране.

Lukashenko is scared, very scared. He goes crazy when he hears the applause. This is why this weekend even the veterans were not allowed to clap.
[…]
The security services are going crazy as well. They started a massive attack on the young people on the eve of the event. On Saturday, they arrested dozens of people, who, as they thought, were the organizers of the action.
[…]
But still, people came. Thousands of people all over the country.

Belarus: Report from Another Non-Violent Protest Event

Alexey Sidorenko — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:46:12 +0000

Belarus Partizan publishes [ru] a detailed report (with photos and videos) on another non-violent protest action (#2906v1900 [ru/by]) in Belarus that took place on June 29, 2011. Police assisted by 3 buses of civilian police helpers ('druzhinnik‘) and 2 BTRs detained nearly 100 participants. The next action organized by the net-based “Future Movement” [ru] group and @internetRevolt [ru] is scheduled on July 3, 2011.

Belarus: Police Crack Down on Minsk Protest

Alexey Sidorenko — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 01:19:27 +0000

A non-violent rally in Minsk, organized via Vkontakte, a Russian social network popular in Belarus and other former Soviet states, ended up with more than 450 people detained. Arrests, trials and numerous detentions, however, do not appear to have stopped the protesters.

Non-violent rally organized online

The day chosen for the rally was June 22, 2011, 19:00 (dubbed with a Twitter hashtag #2206v1900).

So, #Minsk? How about having it like this? - June 22, 2011, photo of the rally by Anton Motolko at Twitpic

Several Vkontakte groups were set up in order to organize the protest actions; “Movement of the Future” [ru] was the most popular one, with nearly 214,000 members.

The police, however, not only prosecuted the groups' moderators, but were also inviting [ru] ordinary members (those they could find) to ‘preventive conversations,' during which they tried to discourage people from participating in the rallies.

The government goes online as well

The Belarusian regime, in addition to using violence, censorship, and prosecution, chose not to ignore Twitter as well. Back in April 2011, the Belarusian Ministry of the Interior launched [ru] its @mvd_by [ru] account, and the Minsk Police Department (@GUVD_Minsk [ru]) followed suit.

Throughout the rally, both accounts were tweeting actively, discouraging those planning to participate, arguing [ru] that any Internet-organized revolution was in direct violation of the Belarusian laws. @GUVD_Minsk directly addressed (and probably promoted) [ru] its nemesis:

#1.Кто собирается «на плошчу», обратите внимание на посты @InternetRevolt – он в открытую подстрекает вас, но отвечать придется вам!

#1. Anyone who is going to “the square,” please pay attention to @InternetRevolt - he is openly inciting you, but it will be you who will be held responsible!

In particular, the Ministry warned people about possible administrative charges for participating in unsanctioned protests, advised them against trying to film the events with their cell phones and engaging with police officers, and suggested that everyone bring their passports along.

The authorities' Twitter recommendations, however, have failed to keep the people from joining the protests.

The coverage of #22o6v1900

According to Reuters, nearly 1,000 people gathered for the June 22 rally in Minsk. The following YouTube videos were collected in a Storify post by GV Author Asteris Masouras:

The rallies were covered by many bloggers and online media. Among the most popular photo reports were those made by Minsk-based Anton Motolko (@motolko [ru]), euroradio.by [ru].

Blogger toxaby published [ru] posts showing special police units seizing activists. He emphasized that the police had violated the Belarusian penal code, and translated the relevant article of the penal code into several languages.

Police officers about to capture a young man walking peacefully. Photo by LJ user toxaby

“The beginning of the end”?

In a lengthy post, Pyotr Kuznetsov, the coordinator of “For the Freedom” movement, explained [ru] the significance of the non-violent rally held on June 22:

Во-первых, власть к такому повороту событий не готова, не способна предложить (навязать?) свой сценарий, и поэтому находится в прострации, до сих пор не определившись со своей линией поведения. […]

Во-вторых, власть явно не обладает достаточными физическими ресурсами для подавления движения в масштабах всей страны, и это тоже – стратегический козырь недовольного народа.

И, в-третьих, используя современные средства коммуникации и социализации, организаторы акции поставили власть и спецслужбы в положение заранее проигрывающих: невозможно ногами сотрудников КГБ опередить молниеносное информационное воздействие Интернета.

First, the authorities weren't ready for such a turn of events, they were unable to propose (or to impose?) their own scenario, and that's why they are in limbo, still unsure of how to behave. […]

Second, the regime obviously doesn't have enough physical resources to suppress a nationwide movement, and this is also a strategic trump card of the unsatisfied people.

And, third, by using the contemporary means of communication and socialization, the organizers of the action have put the government and the special services into a position of losers by default: the KGB agents simply cannot forestall the lightning-fast informational impact of the Internet.

My own Facebook friend, Volia Ch., explained the situation much more succinctly:

Asteris Masouras and Tetyana Bohdanova contributed to this report.

Belarus: Security Services Arrest Administrators of Major Opposition Vkontakte Groups

Alexey Sidorenko — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:24:24 +0000

Several administrators of opposition groups at Vkontakte network were detained, Nasha Niva reported [by]. Sergey Pavlukevich [by], administrator of “We Stand for Great Belarus” [by] (123,000 members, functional although some reported its closure) was detained on June 4, 2011. Dmitry Nefedov [ru], administrator of “Movement for the Future” [ru/by] group (more than 211,000 members) was arrested [by] on June 5. Ivan Stasyuk, another social network leader was captured on June 5 at the Polish-Belarus border but later released [ru].

Belarus: Bombings in the Minsk Subway

Alexey Sidorenko — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:32:16 +0000

Belarus twitterers share information on the latest bombings in the Minsk subway via 3 main Twitter hashtags: #minsk, #minskblast, #twiby. Notolerance-cp publishes first pictures [ru] from the scene of event (warning - some disturbing scenes).

Ukraine: “Stalin” Tea Sparks Controversy

Tetyana Bohdanova — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:24:20 +0000

According to a recent poll [uk], up to 46 percent of Ukrainians feel nostalgic for the USSR, most of them being pensioners, as well as residents of Eastern and Southern regions of the country. At the same time, only 18% of Western Ukrainians and 19 percent of young people share this sentiment.

Such blurred attitudes toward the recent communist past are being eagerly exploited by manufacturers, who have been using Soviet symbols to market their goods for years. Nevertheless, the recent promotion of a domestically-produced tea named after the notorious Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has sparked a heated discussion among Ukrainian netizens, many of whom felt that this time marketers have overstepped the line.

In February, Dnipropetrovsk city Internet forum user Vtoroy shared several photos of a billboard advertising the “Stalin” tea. He wrote this [ru]:

Впервые вживую вижу наружную полиграфию с изображением Сталина.

This is the first time I see [outdoor advertisement] with a picture of Stalin in real life.

Some bloggers, however, pointed out that this brand has been on and off the market for the past three years. When seeing it for the first time in 2008, LJ user sparrow_hawk wrote this [uk]:

спосіб заварювання: на крові. і поміцніше

The way to brew it: on blood. And strong.

LJ user bulavec posted a photo of the “Stalin” tea on a store shelf in the Donetsk LJ community and noted [uk] that it was being sold in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk back in 2009. Around that time, LJ user Tamila Tasheva (tamila_tasheva) from Crimea wrote [uk] that she’d seen the tea in her region as well.

Apparently, this year “Stalin” tea has made a comeback on the Ukrainian market. A few days ago, Facebook user Father Nikanor Skipin shared another photo of a tea-advertising billboard also taken recently in Dnipropetrovsk:

Advertisement of Stalin tea in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. Photo by Nikanor Skipin

Under the photo, he has posted [uk] the following question:

ЯК ВАМ ПОДОБАЄТЬСЯ ТАКА ОСЬ ДУРНЯ ???

How do you like this piece of stupidity ???

User Tykholaz Igor agreed [uk]:

дурня…

nonsense…

User Vlad Pupych wrote [uk]:

боюсь, отруюсь.

[I’m] afraid I could get poisoned.

User Alina Lukashevich wrote [ru]:

хорошее чувство юмора у производителя))))))))))

The producer’s got good sense of humor))))

User Sergey Bacha also commented [ru]:

Этот чай судя по всему рассчитан на пожилых и очень пожилых людей, вот поэтому портрет Сталина взяли а основу. […]

This tea, by all means, is meant for the [elderly], that’s why they have taken Stalin’s portrait as a basis. […]

User Valeriy Kolosyuk replied [uk]:

Моїй бабці 89-ий рік. Не помічав у неї прихильності до Сталіна.

My grandmother is almost 89. I haven’t noticed her sympathizing with Stalin.

A Facebook user from Belarus, Ales Reznikov, wrote [be]:

беларусау гэтым ня здзiвiш

This would not surprise Belarusians

Sharing an example of Stalin being used for marketing purposes in another post-Soviet country, a Kyiv-based LJ user and photographer boga4 posted a 2010 photo of a bottle of wine taken in a souvenir store in Georgia [Joseph Stalin’s country of birth].

A bottle of Stalin wine at a souvenir store in Georgia. Photo by LJ user boga4

Although in 2007 the former Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko issued a decree banning all symbols and monuments to those responsible for the Holodomor (which would include Soviet leaders), it has hardly been carried through. The attitudes of the current authorities are made obvious by the fact that youth activists held guilty for destroying a monument to Stalin in Zaporizhzhya in 2010 have been prosecuted on charges of terrorism.

Belarus: Tweets and Pictures of Another Post-Election Rallies

Alexey Sidorenko — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:35:57 +0000

Despite Twitter has been blocked in Belarus, the Twitter hashtag #electby is updated every second. Lots of photos of the Belarus events available at picfog at the same hashtag.

Belarus: Users Are Redirected to Fake Opposition Websites

Alexey Sidorenko — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:37:13 +0000

Habrahabr-user webdew reports that Belarus users are being redirected to fake opposition websites: gazetaby.in, nnby.in, charter97.in, bchdd.in, belaruspartisan.in, euroradio.in, ucpb.in, svaboda.in. The design of all these websites is the same but the content is completely different from the original. All domains belong to “Belpak”, Belarus state-owned Internet provider.

Belarus: Presidential Election Day Ends in Protests and Crackdown

Veronica Khokhlova — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:21:06 +0000

December 19, the 2010 presidential election day in Belarus, ended in mass protests, arrests and violent clashes with the riot police in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has served as the President of Belarus since July 1994, ran against nine opposition candidates, some of whom are now reported to have been attacked or arrested - or both. Thousands of people gathered in the center of Minsk to protest electoral fraud after the polls closed (some photos and video are here), but as they tried to storm the government headquarters and the central election commission building, they were soon dispersed by riot police. Dozens of protesters and a number of journalists, including a reporter and a photographer for the New York Times, were injured.

Problems with the internet and limited access to social media and opposition websites in Minsk were being reported throughout the day, too (see earlier GV updates by Alexey Sidorenko - here, here, and here). Evgeny Morozov (@evgenymorozov), who is currently in Belarus, tweeted that he couldn't “access anything using https.” In another tweet, posted Sunday afternoon, he wrote:

I also hear that since access to Gmail in Belarus is blocked, opposition sites can't use their mailing lists

Still, citizen media reports were being filed before, during and after the events in the center of Minsk.

On Dec. 18, Dmitry Rastaev (LJ user rastaev) commented (RUS) on the supposedly voluntary “early voting” - in which “23% of the 7 million registered electors” had cast their votes, and which is often considered “an instrument of vote-rigging for authorities“:

Talked with my [student] daughter [via ICQ] today, she said this: “In the dormitory, they are coming into the rooms with the Eviction Act and write down [the names of] all those who didn't vote early on this piece of paper, putting “for [creating insanitary conditions]” as the reason.”

And in the meantime, [Lukashenko] and his clique are barking on the TV about “unacceptability of forcing [people] to vote early.”

[…]

If on the 19th, this [bastardly] regime does not collapse, I don't even know… […] To tolerate this filth and these jerks for five more years - it is physically impossible by now!!!

LJ user adelka posted this report (BEL) after she returned from the rally:

We are home, alive and in one piece.

[…]

My husband, his brother and I carried out a woman covered in blood, [she had a head injury], there were two ambulances behind the government building […] - they were filled with people (6-8 injured people in each one), mainly women with head injuries […]. They were breaking people into groups and chasing them into “pockets” - and there, they were throwing them on the ground and beating them. They were even beating underage girls - […] beating them with their feet and sticks, and happily laughing as they did it. […]

The feeling is that there's a junta and fascism in the country.

[…]

I'll tell you honestly, I was scared. But I'm happy that the regime fears me and I'm proud of those who was there [at the rally]. Forgive me, but it's hard [not to sound pompous] after what I've seen with my own eyes. […]

LJ user aneta-spb, a St. Petersburg-based journalist who came to Minsk to cover the election, posted these updates (RUS) from the rally:

October Square, Minsk.

A lot of people on October Square, I'm in the crowd […], and can't count [how many] because of this. […] Most people are young, but there are enough mature people, and the elderly. People are calling their friends on the phone, inviting them to the square: “What are you afraid of, come over here, we can't live like this any longer.”

Riot police are pushing the people from the square […]

Fights with agents provocateurs had been provoked. Lots of riot police, a whole army [of them] - they are coming to the square from all directions, trying to push people out, but the people aren't leaving. […]

First, the people occupied the center of Minsk, then, riot police and the army.

[…] But it was powerful. Very powerful. […] Of course, it was a bit scary, too. […] The Belarusians [did great, truly great]. I'm proud. And the main thing is that the people came out not for the leaders. Which proves one more time that the leaders are [not of primary importance].

LJ user dabrahost wrote this (RUS):

I totally agree with Natalya Radina via EURORADIO: “Lukashenko has declared a war on his own people.”

From this, logically => his whole vertical - is in a state of war with the people => every official and cop deserves a Hague tribunal. EVERY OFFICIAL AND COP! Sooner or later, this will happen.

On Twitter, the #electby and #ploscha hashtags were and are being used on reports on the situation.

@euroradio (BEL):

Witnesses of the beating on the square: they were beating one guy, he fell, the riot police officer came back and [beat him some more, until he lost consciousness]. […]

@Feveray (RUS):

[…] The snow on the square in front of the government headquarters is red.

@jkirchick (ENG):

For the record: Belarusian spetznatz are jackbooted thugs […]

@chudentsov (RUS):

To stand between two columns of riot police as they are closing in on you, when you have only your smartphone as a weapon - isn't nice. My legs saved me. […]

@lucysd (RUS):

For the first time I've seen how riot police are beating people with sticks… During our [Ukrainian] orange revolution [of 2004] everything was like in a kids' fairy tale compared to #electby

This post was re-published in Russian by the Ezhednevniy Zhurnal (Daily Journal) as part of a content partnership with Global Voices' RuNet Echo.

Belarus: Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other Sites Blocked

Alexey Sidorenko — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:48:36 +0000

Belarus government blocked all major social media (Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook) as well as opposition media outlets “Charter 97“, “Belarus Partizan“, and “Solidarity“, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The government decided to block social media in order to prevent mass mobilization after today's elections and following protests.

Belarus: Charter97.org's Editor Found Dead

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:29:06 +0000

Aleh Byabenin, a Belarusian journalist, founder and editor of the leading oppositional website Charter97.org, was found dead Friday. He was 36 years old. This short Charter97 item announcing his death already has 193 comments, mainly with words of condolence.

Ukraine: Anthem in 14 Languages

Veronica Khokhlova — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 13:07:08 +0000

Ukraine's national anthem performed in 14 languages (Ukrainian, Greek, Tatar, Gagauz, Polish, Romanian, Georgian, Yiddish, Romani, Russian, Hungarian, Belarusian, Armenian, Azerbaijani) - at Ukrainiana.

Belarus: Photos from Minsk, Gomel, Bobruisk, etc.

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:51:05 +0000

A great collection of photos from Belarus - new and old buildings, stencil graffiti, Minsk, Gomel, Bobruisk, etc. - by LJ user darriuss (RUS, BEL).

Belarus: Google Translations

Veronica Khokhlova — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:52:58 +0000

Siberian Light is testing Google's newly-added Belarusian language translation tool.