Contents of the report:

Chapter 1. The space for Belarusian peacebuilders and human rights defenders in exile in Lithuania is shrinking and attacks against Belarusian women in exile in Lithuania are happening due to their participation if conferences and actions devoted to the issues that the far-rigth and the Belarusian KGB do not like (LGBT+, pacifist, and so on).

Attacks against Olga Karach for her participation in pacifist conference in Vienna organized by the Belarusian diaspora in Austria for her participation in the Peacebuilders Summit in Vienna.

Chapter 2. Attacks of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, former candidate for presidency in Belarus in 2020, against pacifist movement and discrediting campaign held against pacifists among the Belarusian democratic movement through her affiliated media.

REPORT

Chapter 1. The space for Belarusian peacebuilders and human rights defenders in exile in Lithuania is shrinking and attacks against Belarusian women in exile in Lithuania are happening due to their participation if conferences and actions devoted to the issues that the far-rigth and the Belarusian KGB do not like (LGBT+, pacifist, and so on).

Attacks against Olga Karach for her participation in pacifist conference in Vienna organized by the Belarusian diaspora in Austria for her participation in the Peacebuilders Summit in Vienna.

On June 10, 2023, the Belarusian diaspora in Austria launched a massive attack against Olga Karach, publicly accusing her of being a pro-Putin agent and working for Russian propaganda based on the fact of her participation in the pacifist conference in Vienna.

This is the official statement in German and Belarusian of the Belarusian diaspora in Austria on June 10, 2023.

The translated message text here:

“We condemn the participation of Olga Karach, the leader of the organization “Our House” in the so-called “peace conference” in Vienna on June 10-11, 2023.

We hereby inform the following:

1.On June 2, 2023, after Mrs. Karach approached us for consultation, we informed her in advance about the true propaganda objectives of the conference.

2.We informed her that her presence at the conference would be exploited to compromise the liberation movement of Belarusians and the civil society of Belarus.

!Despite our warnings, Mrs. Karach has made the decision to participate in this conference. This allows us to assert the following:

-> Mrs. Karach does not consider the interests and good reputation of the Belarusian democratic movement to be important.

->At the conference, she solely addresses her own issues, unrelated to the cause of Belarus’ liberation. Her statements represent her personal opinion and she does not represent the civil society of Belarus.

Additionally, we inform you that our organization is not running and has no intention of running any joint projects with Mrs. Karach or the “Our House”.

Previously, the Belarusian diaspora in Austria actively exerted pressure on Olga Karach by mobilizing all its contacts within the Belarusian community and spreading defamatory statements among Belarusians regarding the pacifist conference in Vienna, claiming it to be pro-Russian and pro-Putin. Furthermore, as a final resolution, the Belarusians in Austria deliberately presented a text from the event program, which constitutes the intentionally produced distortion of reality and does not correspond to the truth.

In various chat groups, Belarusians in Austria posted messages of the following content. (For your information, the “Bibliotekar” is the head of the Belarusian diaspora in Austria).

Here is a screenshot and a quote from a Telegram message by the head of the Belarusian diaspora in Austria:

“Great. Then come to Vienna and explain to our allies that OK (Note: Olga Karach) is wonderful, while all of them + the Green Party + 100500 (Note: it means numerous) NGOs+ trade unions, and even the guys from the ultra-left and ultra=pacifist attack, are brain-dead idiots. Once they understood the topic, they rushed away from this conference, losing their slippers.”

Here are screenshots of other messages from chats among Belarusians in Austria, along with quotes from them:

1. “Ms. Ewa (Note: the speech is about Ewa Dziedzic) from the leading Green Party knows from her own life what it’s like to live under a dictatorship. She fled with her parents from communist Poland to Austria. She is a vocal and fervent supporter of Belarusians in Austria.”

As far as we understand, it was the Belarusians in Austria who deliberately misinformed the Green politician Eva Dziedzic about the pro-Russian nature of this conference.

2. “Well, yes, it’s possible for a deceived person to participate, someone who was misled in the dark. But that’s radically not our case. As early as June 2nd, OK (Note:Olga Karach) had full information about who is affiliated with whom. It surprised me that not only the Greens backed out, but also the extremely radical attack guys.”

3. From diaspora activists’ correspondence on telegram.

The translated message text here:

From diaspora activists’ correspondence on telegram

Dear all, good evening!

I’ll share some information with you here to shed some light on WHAT kind of conference it is in Austria. It’s not just about “who didn’t listen to whom” (it’s worth noting that questions regarding participation were mainly directed towards the diaspora in Austria).

So,

1.It’s important to feel, rather than understand, that Austria has been a hub of Soviet, and now Russian and Lukashist propaganda for decades in modern history. There are many internal reasons for this in Austria, starting from the education in schools about the history of World War II in the post-war period, and ending with attractive banking and financial legislations in modern times.

2.Austrian political life revolves around and thrives on such laud events like strange conferences – the country is small, and it needs to be noticeable. Well, it has its own set of peculiarities.

4. From diaspora activists’ correspondence on telegram.

The translated message text here:

“The topic of Austrian politics can be discussed and not fully discussed, but one thing to understand is that when it comes to such conferences in Austria, each one needs to be examined under a magnifying glass. Carefully. Otherwise, what will happen? There will be dogsheets for years to come, everything will be remembered, and all skeletons will be brought out. Well, and propagandists will use the name of every participant for their own interests, which the participants themselves may not even be aware of.

Therefore, Mrs. Karach HERSELF turned to the diaspora for information on what is happening at the conference, receiving a thorough investigation with facts about almost every peculiar participant. Furthermore, she was informed in real-time about who was withdrawing from participating in the conference after the organizers had released a very anti-Ukrainian and anti-NATO statement.

Mrs. Karach agreed with our arguments and allegedly decided to withdraw her participation as well. Indeed, her name was removed from the conference website. Unfortunately, our partners and journalist colleagues informed us on the day of the conference (with some wonderful photos) that Olga Karach was speaking at the conference.”

5. Attacks on Olga Karach for her participation in a peaceful conference in Vienna, including attempts to discredit her by labeling her a “pro-Putin agent” and using hate speech.

Screenshots with quotes from them. The translated message text here:

“That’s why we distanced ourselves from the participants of this pro-Russian conference. To avoid consequences for Belarusians.”

“I don’t understand how we discredited Olga Karach?

She discredited herself quite well, and at the same time, she also discredited all Belarusians (regardless of whether they are from Austria or elsewhere) by participating in this propaganda devoted to the russia day. I wonder, by the way, did the russian ambassador in Austria present any medals there?”

The translated message text here:

“And she made her choice. The diaspora, being Belarusians themselves, distanced itself. Publicly. So it will be with anyone who supports Russian propaganda in Austria.”

They actively spread misinformation about this conference across all chats and diligently created a false impression that conference participants support Russian aggression in Ukraine.

This led to additional risks and threats for Olga Karach, specifically provoking an attack from Belarusian propaganda.

Additionally, the chief editor of the First Russian TV channel, one of the main pro-Putin propaganda media outlets, persistently called Olga Karach in an attempt to interview her after noticing the attacks from Belarusians in Austria.

The attack from Belarusians in Austria also caught the attention of Igor Makar, a former security officer and a pro-Russian individual who is currently under investigation by the Lithuanian police for publicly threatening to kill and harm Olga Karach. He showed interest in the post and republished it.

Below is a screenshot of a message from the Telegram channel “Igor Makar | Official Channel” (which is a repost from the Telegram channel of Belarusians in Austria), along with its translation into English.

Igor Makar | Official Channel

The translated message text here:

“We condemn the participation of Olga Karach, the leader of the organization “Our House” in the so-called “peace conference” in Vienna on June 10-11, 2023.

We hereby inform the following:

1.On June 2, 2023, after Mrs. Karach approached us for consultation, we informed her in advance about the true propaganda objectives of the conference.

2.We informed her that her presence at the conference would be exploited to compromise the liberation movement of Belarusians and the civil society of Belarus.

! Despite our warnings, Mrs. Karach has made the decision to participate in this conference. This allows us to assert the following:

-> Mrs. Karach does not consider the interests and good reputation of the Belarusian democratic movement to be important.

->At the conference, she solely addresses her own issues, unrelated to the cause of Belarus’ liberation. Her statements represent her personal opinion and she does not represent the civil society of Belarus.

Additionally, we inform you that our organization is not running and has no intention of running any joint projects with Mrs. Karach or the “Our House”.

Targeting Olga Karach and subjecting her to harassment by agents of the KGB and Belarusian propaganda.

After the conference in Vienna, the mention of Olga Karach soon appeared in one of the Belarusian propaganda Telegram channels called “Chief. Tur”. In particular, using rumors of her pro-Putin orientation or working as a pro-Putin agent as a basis, they try to portray her either as a KGB agent or as someone who shares and promotes pro-Putin views. This is evident from the fact that Karach is mentioned together with individuals known to have obvious pro-Russian views (for example, Igor Makar) or those who worked as spies for the Lukashenko regime. Specifically, it refers, for example, to Alexander Azarov, who headed the affiliated structure of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called ByPol for a long time. Taking advantage of the access to sensitive personal data provided to him (Tsikhanouskaya’s digital plan “Peramoga”), he leaked information about Belarusian protesters to the Lukashenko regime, which led to the arrest of thousands of innocent people in Belarus.

The translated message text here:

Whose interview regarding ByPol are we waiting for on ONT (Note: a Belarusian propaganda television channel)? (details today at 20:30 – “Our News”, “To be updated”)

Anonymous poll:

37% Alexander Azarov

15% Matvey Kupreychik

5% Stanislav Luponosov

4% Andrey Ostapovich

1% Vladimir Zhigar

22% Igor Makar

16% Olga Karach

On June 12, 2023 Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s affiliated blogger Tatiana Martynova, who is now in Ukraine, released a video about agents of the Belarusian regime, where she explicitly said that Olga Karach was attending pro-Putin conference.

Given how morbidly Ukraine now treats even the Russian opposition, there is an active attempt here to create a negative image of Olga Karach as a “pro-Putin agent” just by her participation in the Peacebuilders Summit in Vienna. Tatiana Martynova put Olga Karach in the same association with the KGB agents and the Belarusian regime only by the fact of Olga Karach’s participation in the Summit in Vienna, which also creates a negative reputation of Olga.

The link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tGraNvBDUA

Chapter 2. Attacks of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, former candidate for presidency in Belarus in 2020, against pacifist movement and discrediting campaign held against pacifists among the Belarusian democratic movement through her affiliated media.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a Belarusian right-wing politician, a former candidate for presidency in Belarus in 2020, who is actively expressing her militarist position and chooses people with the same militarist views to join her team. Through her affiliated media, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is discrediting and attacking the whole international pacifist movement.

On February 21, 2023, on the International Mother Language Day, a representative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya for National Revival, Alina Koushyk, spoke about her favorite word in the Belarusian language:

“Previously I would have added the word “pavetra” (“air”) to my favorite words. But today I say “zbroya” (“weapons”).

Also, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s assistant from the USA, Denis Baranov, stated in a chat with representatives of all the Belarusan diasporas that Our House united with Nazis to save the Belarusian conscientious objectors and that one shouldn’t unite with Nazi organizations. He also explained that Nazis and pacifists are people with the same ideology. He gave permission to quote him publicly.

The quote of Denis Baranov:

“You may quote me publicly. When I am offered to implement a joint project or to sign a joint statement, I look into the other party. Therefore, if I were offered to defend animals, but there were Nazi among the participants, I would refuse.

European communists-pacifists stay not far away from the Nazi in their views. There is such a phenomenon, called political horseshoe”

Two Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s affiliated mass media, Euroradio and Novy Čas, simultaneously published articles attacking a number of respectful pacifist organizations, such as Pour la Paix, Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, putting them at the same associative array with Alternative for Germany, the Italian party Five Star Movement and the former Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conti, as well as with Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán. All that indicates the “order-made” character of the articles and political motives of their issuance. While reading the articles, impression arises that those pacifist organizations are allies of the right-wing and fascist party Alternative for Germany, Giuseppe Conte and his Five Stars party, as well as the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

The article on Euroradio is named “Karach carries out a project with NGOs that call on not to provide weapons to Ukraine. Details”, the article in Novy Čas – “How organization of Olga Karach got in the same company with opponents of weapons for Ukraine?”. Both the media make part of the so-called InfoPoint – an association of the Belarusian media, headed by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s chief advisor, Franak Viačorka, and the journalists of which signed an NDA banning them from criticizing Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya for the term of 10 years. Indeed, not a single critical article devoted to the activity of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her office can be found on the pages of those mass media. In addition, the same media are silent about almost all corruption and other high-profile scandals of the Belarusian democratic movement, that involve Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her team.

Both the articles are written anonimously and as a blueprint, half of the article is devoted to financial scandals connected with Russia and its financing of political structures in the West. The articles strongly push the narrative and manipulations that the pacifist movement in the West is being financed by Russia.

For example, the articles say:

“In 2018, Alternative for Germany got into a scandal with illegal financing from abroad. The payment came from Switzerland. The leader of the 5 Stars Movement, former Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte. In 2018, Conte said that during his meeting with Putin, their “friendship was born”.

In September, 2022, the US State Department informed that Russia had issued not less than $300 million to political parties in over 20 countries. Then, Italian politicians had to exonerate from accusations and say they had not received the money.

Also, Putin’s long-time friend, the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, is actively supporting him. That gave grounds to the Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rastislav Káčer, to say that Orbán wants “Putin’s peace”.

For that, Hungary gets economic preferences. In March, 2022, Orbán stated that Hungary needed to sustain low prices for energy resources, dependent on importing Russian gas.”

Also, political manipulations are made on the issue of murders in Bucha that “it is unclear how the pacifist approach could help with that” (a quote from the article).

We would also like to quote a public speech of another trusted representative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Mikalai Salianik, during Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s electoral campaign in 2020. Any candidate for presidency in Belarus can have only 30 trusted representatives, so only the most proven persons, close to the candidate, are granted that position. Here’s a quote from his speech:

“Germany was humiliated, insulted, hung all over with contributions, and then Hitler arrived. Just look, how he raised the spirit of the nation! Where he led them afterwards, is another question. Just look, how he raised the spirit of the nation, how people trusted him! We need such leaders so that our people would raise and long for freedom. And we have such a leader: it’s Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her team!”

Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya’s affiliated military organization BYPOL prepares militants to train in Poland for armed insurrection in Belarus.

Belarusian exiles in Poland are training for a future armed insurrection in their home nation, The Times has claimed. The militants may also “play a key role” in the Ukraine conflict, according to the British newspaper the Sunday Times on June 18, 2023.

On June 20, 2023 Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya announced that she did not rule out asking Vladimir Zelenski for support for an armed invasion of Belarus for the liberation of Belarus.