Александр Пашкевич. Фото: Facebook
A criminal case has been opened in Belarus against historian and publicist Aliaksandr Pashkevich for taking part in discussions on a YouTube channel designated an “extremist formation” by the Belarusian authorities. In October 2026, he was placed on an interstate wanted list. The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) drew attention to a Facebook post by Pashkevich.
Information about the historian’s wanted status appeared on a special notice board outside the Lahoisk District Police Department. Next to his photograph, it says he is suspected under Part 1 of Article 361-4 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (facilitating extremist activity).
According to Pashkevich, the criminal case is based on his participation in discussions on the Malanka Media YouTube channel about language policy in Belarus and social developments. In February 2023, the Interior Ministry designated the media project an “extremist formation.”
In a comment accompanying the photograph, the historian recalled looking at a “Police Wanted” board at the railway station in Luninets as a child and being unable to imagine that he would one day appear on a similar notice board himself.
“If someone had told me back then, when I was young, or even much later, that I would be used to scare children on a similar board, I would never have believed it. But, as the saying goes, never say never — and this photograph, found on the internet, is proof of that,” he wrote.
According to his calculations, six of the 18 people whose photographs are displayed on the notice board in Lahoisk are wanted under articles related to political persecution.
“These are harsh and utterly absurd times, and they have been going on for years. So, whether we like it or not, we have long grown accustomed to the realities of the states ruled by King Giacomo and King Topsed, and nothing surprises us anymore. Besides, the company is hardly shameful: six of the 18 people on the board — exactly one-third — are ‘socially close’ to one another in terms of the charges brought against them. Such is the criminal underworld in Belarus today,” Pashkevich noted.
Among those wanted are Dzianis Urbanovich, a member of the Kalinouski Regiment; human rights defender and educational program coordinator Darya Rubleuskaya; and Minsk resident Volha Sineleva, who in 2021 refused to rent out her apartment to prosecutor’s office employee Alina Kasyanchyk. Kasyanchyk served as a state prosecutor in politically motivated cases, including those against journalists Katsiaryna Andreyeva and Darya Chultsova. The notice board also features photographs of several people facing criminal charges under Article 342 of the Criminal Code (organizing or preparing actions that grossly violate public order, or actively participating in them).
Belarusian citizens are added to the interstate wanted database at the request of Belarusian law enforcement agencies. It already includes more than 100 journalists and media workers. The search covers Russia and other CIS countries and may also expose those listed to the risk of extradition from countries considered friendly to the Belarusian regime.
Aliaksandr Pashkevich, a former deputy editor of the magazines ARCHE Pachatak and Nasha Historya, left Belarus in 2021.
On August 9, 2020, the day of the presidential election, Pashkevich was detained at polling station No. 103 in Minsk, where he was present as a journalist during the vote count.