Trial of Tikhanovsky, Statkevich and four other defendants begin in Gomel this week

27 июня 2021
Tikhanovsky (the one who promised to hang law enforcement officers), his cameraman Artem Sakov and programmer Dmity Popov are charged under four articles: organization of mass riots, incitement of social hatred, obstructing the work of the CEC and organization of actions that grossly violate public order. Statkevich is charged with organization of mass riots. The opposition was getting ready not for the election but for a protest action. And they didn't hide it from the very beginning. Now the court will decide how much will be enough for the defendants in the "Statkevich-Tikhanovsky case," who had been planning protests and loud anti-state actions since mid-2019. In 2020, their implementation was taking place.

Alexander Agafonov, First Deputy Head of the State Investigative Committee of Belarus: "From the spring of 2020, the ideology of protest begins to be promoted - it is the classic deliberate non-recognition of the election results even before they are even held. This is an unsuccessful attempt to nominate Severinets as a single opposition candidate, to consider a boycott of the election, and to hold a series of rallies against the election."

Tikhanovsky was one of the key players in the attack on the authorities. But the main blow was made by the information network of Telegram and YouTube channels. It shaped the agenda, manipulated public opinion.

Alexander Agafonov, First Deputy Head of the State Investigation Committee of Belarus: "First, supporters were sought, and secondly, a system of telegram channels "Country for Life" was created: "Mozyr for Life," "Postavshitsna for Life," "Slutsk for Life" and others. More than 27 channels were created."

All of them were powered by a single agenda system. NEXTA, NEXTA LIVE, and BGM subsequently formed the protest agenda, gave commands, appeals to active participants. That is, Tikhanovsky, when he was traveling around the country, was not only selecting his accomplices, he was creating this unified system of communication. He created this network of communication, in some regions the telegram networks were not developed, people did not use Telegram at all, they did not know what a telegram channel is. Tikhanovsky showed how to subscribe to them, how to find the necessary information. Subsequently, this system of telegram chats and channels was created, and they were all signed up to those bots in foreign centers that eventually began to manage and distribute commands and assignments. The small yard chats allowed them to organize people within mini-collectives, subsequently grouping them together, singling out the most aggressive blogs. And it was this active minority that tried to show themselves as the majority. This is why there was such a high level of aggression toward officials and law enforcement agencies. There was a message sent through social networks that those who are against the government are in the majority. Secondly, the main enemies are representatives of the authorities, first of all, the security and law enforcement officers.