Gomel’s railway area found an extremist Russian Telegram-channel “Protest Russia – All-Russian opposition chat” engaged in coverage of opposition actions and other resonant political events. The message appeared in the Telegram Channel of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (Gipper) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus.
According to the court decision, from now on, Belarusians are forbidden to consist of this chat, as well as to store and distribute any information materials that were published in it. “Storage of extremist materials, as well as subscription to Telegram-channels and chats recognized by extremist, persecuted by law,” the department says.
The decision on the introduction of criminal liability for a subscription to the “Extremist” Telegram channels in Belarus was taken at the end of October 2021. According to the relevant article of the Criminal Code of citizens may be condemned for up to seven years. Any author or reader of the relevant resource, according to Belarusian laws, is automatically considered a member of the extremist formation.
During the fall in the list of resources prohibited in the country, the Opposition leader of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, NEXTA, and even the “Chat lovers of Viktor Tsoi songs” have entered. In addition, the security forces recognized the extremist all online platforms of the main human rights project of the Republic of Spring.