Forty-nine-year-old Vyachaslau Leanenka has been appointed director of the Belarusian State Puppet Theatre. As discovered by Zerkalo with the help of Cyber Partisans, he comes from the security services, is a police major and previously worked in the security sector.
The position of director of the Puppet Theatre had remained vacant since February of this year, when the previous head, Tatstsiana Toustsik, left, reportedly to return to teaching.
Since 2024, Vyachaslau Leanenka had been listed at the Puppet Theatre as deputy director. However, the theatre’s website contained no information about who he was, and his biography has still not appeared there now that Leanenka has been appointed director.
There is no information about him in any open sources.
With the help of Cyber Partisans, Zerkalo uncovered the man’s security services background.
Vyachaslau Leanenka graduated from the Academy of the Interior Ministry in 2001, worked in Minsk police and by 2008 had risen to the rank of major. In 2012, the 35-year-old police officer was dismissed from his post as senior forensic expert at Minsk’s Zavodski District Police Department before the end of his contract by mutual agreement between the parties. The circumstances are unknown. Immediately afterwards, Leanenka joined Eurotorg, which operates the Euroopt retail chain, in its security service and in 2015 became deputy head of security. In 2017, he moved to Dabranom, which operates the Kapeechka, Mayak and Dabranom retail chains.
In November 2023, Leanenka took a job with the Zavodski District organisation of the Belaya Rus public association, which has now been turned into the main party of power, in an unknown position. Just two months later, in January 2024, he was appointed deputy director of the Puppet Theatre.
Zerkalo recalls that the practice of appointing security services veterans to leadership positions in major organisations is now common in Belarus, including in the cultural sphere. For example, in the same year, 2024, deputy director for security, regime and personnel at the Maksim Horki Minsk Theatre became Yury Petrasheuski, a police major who had worked as head of the criminal enforcement inspectorate at the Maladzyechna District Police Department. The director of the Hrodna Drama Theatre between 2012 and 2025 was former military officer Ihar Hedzich, a former member of the Council of the Republic. However, there have not previously been former police officers among theatre directors.
