The writer demanded to cancel the Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus; the losses of the Belarusian economy from the disconnection of the Internet amounted to more than $300 million; Belarus has 3rd and 4th places in the European TOP of fakes; evening demonstrations of protesters were brutally dispersed
5 January 2021 | BYHelp-Mediagroup
People who gathered in the courtyards of their houses were brutally detained, some were hospitalized due to beatings
Late in the evening on 5 January, residents of many districts of Minsk, as well as other cities, went to protest meetings.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 25 people were detained. However, the brutality on the part of the security forces not only does not fade away, but grows every day. Several people after such detentions ended up in hospitals with various injuries. According to the testimony of participants in peaceful actions, as well as judging by the recordings from CCTV cameras, the security forces are threatening ordinary citizens with weapons more and more frequently and more blatantly. It is noteworthy that the officers of the security forces do not identify themselves in any way, do not show documents and do not introduce themselves during the arrests. It is extremely difficult to distinguish them from the bandits.
“Are you going to hold the World Cup in a country where people are beaten and shot for using the national flag?” Writer Sasha Filipenko appealed to Fasel
The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has published an open letter from the famous Belarusian writer Sasha Filipenko to the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Rene Fasel.
“Hello, my name is Sasha Filipenko, I am Belarusian, and I have a few questions for you. (…) Am I correct in assuming that you think it is appropriate to hold the World Cup in a country where arrested demonstrators are being tortured in the center of the capital? Have you watched all the videos? Have you read all the documented cases of torture, of which the UN alone recorded more than 450? Are they not enough for you? Do I need to send you more?
“(…) Do I understand correctly that you are going to host the World Cup in a country where people are beaten and shot for using the national flag? Have you already taken a word from Lukashenko that his chain dogs will not kill for other flags? So, for example, the dictator is sure that three hundred thousand people take to the streets of Minsk, not because he usurped power, but only because Czech puppeteers are behind everything. Can you guarantee the safety of Czech fans? Can you guarantee Lukashenko that puppeteers from the Czech Republic will not fly to Minsk? Do you have any thoughts on this? We will be happy to listen!” reads Filipenko’s letter.
At the same time, it was reported that the Council of the International Ice Hockey Federation will decide on the venue for this year’s World Championship at its meeting at the end of January.
Note that the tournament should be held in Riga and Minsk from 21 May to 6 June 2021, but both residents of Belarus and the partner in the championship – Latvia, as well as the officials of the IIHF itself insist on its postponement.
Source: TUT.BY
Top10VPN: internet disconnection cost Belarus $336 million
According to a new study by Top10VPN, Internet blocking in 2020 cost Belarus $336.4 million. Among other countries, only India paid more – about $2.78 billion.
There was no access to the network in Belarus in 2020 for 218 hours. Outages affected 7.9 million internet users. According to the researchers, in Belarus the blackouts were accompanied by human rights violations, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of the press, as well as falsified elections.
Police began to search for participants in yesterday’s march of pensioners
On Monday, 4 January, the first protest action of pensioners in 2021 was held in Minsk. No one was detained there, because the seniors acted cunningly – they classified the meeting place. It was only later on that social media wrote that older people joined the chain of solidarity in one of the districts of Minsk. The Minsk police also saw the video from the protest and began the administrative process: they are already working to identify the persons who took part in the “unauthorized mass gathering” in order to hold them accountable.
In the European rating of fakes “Disinformation in 2020: Top Embarrassing Moments”, news about Belarus took 3rd and 4th places
Belarus appears in two messages at once, which took 3rd and 4th places in the European rating of fake news.
The third place was taken by the work of the Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, where he wanted to show that the images of the rallies against Lukashenko in Belarus are computer graphics.
The fourth place was taken by a fake, in which Lukashenko shared a falsified recording of an interception of a conversation between German and Polish special services, the (in)famous Nick and Mike, who allegedly plotted a regime change in Belarus.
For more information on the events of 5 January 2021, please visit Infocenter Free Belarus 2020:
