Newsletter: Dec 28-Jan 3

BELARUS

Dec 28: BYPOL: Tikhanovsky’s case files, audio of alleged ex Interior Minister’s speech leaked. BYPOL, a telegram channel of former investigators and law enforcers, published materials related to the arrest of Sergei Tikhanovsky. Among other things, there is an audio recording in which a man with a voice that sounds like Former Minister of Internal Affairs Yuri Karaev says that “he is more dangerous than all these Babarikos” and “he must be imprisoned for a long time.”

Dec 28: Lukashenka comments on arrest of Belarusian entrepreneur and long time state enemy. During a visit to the children’s infectious diseases hospital in Minsk, [Alyaksandr Lukashenka said] (https://belsat.eu/en/news/lukashenka-says-autukhovich-brought-weapons-across-border/) that Mikalai Autukhovich, who has been arrested multiple times since 2005 due to his active political stance against the regime, imported weapons from Ukraine. Moreover, he claimed that Autukhovich transferred tons of weapons across the border and prepared terrorist attacks throughout the country. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine refutes these allegations.

Dec 30: Coordinating Council to attempt official state registration. The Coordination Council for the Settlement of the Political Crisis (CC) may in the near future attempt to get officially registered in Belarus, said in the statement press secretary of the Council Anton Radnyankou. According to him, the desire to work in the country legally among the members of the Presidium of the CC has always been there, but the authorities are afraid of this, which is why criminal cases were opened. The General Prosecutor’s Office opened criminal cases “on the facts of the creation of an extremist formation and its leadership, financing of its activities in order to seize state power in an unconstitutional way.”

 

Dec 30: Belarus receives first tranche of Russian $1 billion loan According to a message on the page of the Ministry of Finance, its size is $ 0.5 billion: “Pursuant to the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the Government of the Russian Federation on the provision of the State Financial Credit to the Government of the Republic of Belarus, concluded on December 21, 2020, on December 30, 2020, the Ministry of Finance received the first tranche of the State Financial Credit in the amount equivalent to USD 0.5 billion.”

Dec 30: IT company Synesis, which is now under EU sanctions, is connected with Lukashenka. The journalists of Euroradio have conducted an extensive investigation, which exposes the connection between Synesis company and Aleksin and Sheiman. Few people know, but apart from the Shevrau brothers and Pyotr Sinitsyn, Synesis is owned by Ina Aleksina (0.06%) and Energo-Oil-Invest (24.99%). The company Energa-Oil-Invest, in turn, is owned by Ina and Alyaksei Aleksin, the notorious owner of “Tabakerka”, who is close with Lukashenka. The IT company Synesis, which fell under EU sanctions, is associated with Lukashenka.

Dec 31: Belarus 2020 recap in pictures. + video of Tsikhanouskaya’s New Year address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJrVomXKVK4

 

Jan 3: Sunday March. Local protest actions took place in Minsk, many regional and district centers, as well as in other settlements of Belarus such as Mahilious and Brest, naviny.media writes. Small groups of Belarusians organize local marches, flash mobs and other actions. A solidarity action with the people of Belarus, dedicated to the memory of the Belarusians murdered by executioners of the regime, was held in Lviv today as well.

 

INTERNATIONAL

Dec 28: President Donald Trump signed the fiscal year 2021 appropriations bill that also includes the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020. The law expands the U.S. president’s authority to impose sanctions against Belarus in connection with the disputed 2020 presidential election and subsequent government crackdown. The U.S. recognizes the Coordination Council as a legitimate institution to participate in a dialogue on a peaceful transition of power and does not recognize Alexander Lukashenko as the “legitimately elected leader of Belarus”. Also, Washington does not recognize the inclusion of Belarus into “the so-called Union State”.

 

Dec 29: Ice Hockey World Championship 2021 to not be held in Belarus, Swiss media report. The chairman of the organization, René Fasel, has not yet announced a decision regarding the Ice Hockey World Championship, but will soon fly to Minsk to personally and as gently as possible inform Alyaksandr Lukashenka of the cancellation of the World Cup. According to the publication’s sources, the 2021 World Ice Hockey Championship will definitely not be held in Belarus. But another venue has not yet been determined — there is an active search for it. Belarus won the right to host the Ice Hockey World Championship together with Latvia. But due to the rigged elections and mass protests, a large international movement to deprive Belarus of this right gained pace.

Jan 1: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya interview with Financial Times. and The Atlantic