On November 1, 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus unexpectedly added Karach to the list of “persons involved in extremist activities.” This led to some unusual consequences for the human rights defender. With this designation, Karach is now barred from any involvement in drug trafficking, handling weapons or ammunition, explosives, or financing weapons of mass destruction.

These restrictions seem absurd, especially since Karach has consistently opposed violence and war, while her organization, Our House, actively defends Belarusians in difficult situations, supporting women, children, and conscientious objectors or deserters from military service and the war in Ukraine.

These accusations appear to be a pretext for further repression and monitoring. The Department of Financial Monitoring of the Belarusian State Control Committee will now oversee Karach’s compliance with these restrictions, providing the regime tools to track her and her organization’s finances. This tactic mirrors Belarus’s 2011 move to obtain financial data from Lithuania and Poland on the human rights organization Viasna, leading to the imprisonment of its head, Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski for 4.5 years of prison. The current regime seems to be repeating this successful approach with Olga Karach.

Additionally, the “extremist” designation now prohibits Karach from teaching, implementing educational programs, engaging in publishing, and holding any public office in Belarus. Ironically, this means she is even barred from working as an ideologist in Lukashenko’s administration for the next 17 years.

However, it seems overly optimistic for Lukashenko to assume his reign will last that long.

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