Доника Косби. Фото: @bchorizont
American basketball player Donica Cosby, who won the 2024 Belarus Cup with Minsk club Horizont, was added to the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted database in early April. Cosby’s name was discovered in the database by Mediazona while preparing its latest database update.
The database entry does not specify under which article the criminal case was opened or whether the case was initiated in Russia or Belarus.
Cosby herself learned about the criminal case from Mediazona’s message. In 2025, she ended her playing career and now works as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
“They treated me like I was a criminal or something when I crossed the border”, she told Mediazona. “They were looking for any reason to arrest me, so I’m not surprised.”
According to her, when returning to Belarus after Christmas holidays in 2024, her backpack was confiscated “for some tests or something like that.”
“Honestly, it was some nonsense because I was an American constantly leaving and coming back… They wanted to [find] drugs, but of course I had nothing, otherwise I’d be in prison now.”
Cosby was eventually allowed into Belarus, but three weeks later she was summoned for questioning: “I think it was the immigration office, not a police station. They asked me where I had been, with whom, and why I had left and returned so many times.”
Cosby said she does not know the reason for the criminal case. “In any case, I wouldn’t even consider travelling to [Russia or Belarus] anymore”, the basketball player said.
After the questioning, Cosby’s agent concluded that it had become unsafe for her to remain in Belarus, and she left the country. Her contract with Horizont was terminated by mutual agreement several weeks later, in February 2025.