Anatol Vaitsiakhouski, who disappeared in Białystok about a month ago, has appeared in the propaganda film “Return Home” by the Belarus 1 TV channel. A trailer for the “investigative film” was released today.
Vaitsiakhouski founded one of the first private newspapers in Baranavichy — “Shag” — in the 1990s and later went into business in the 2000s. In April 2023, Vaitsiakhouski was detained over comments he had made. He was evacuated to Poland with the help of BYSOL.
In March this year, Vaitsiakhouski and another activist, Uladzimir Usser, with whom he lived in a shared apartment in Białystok, appeared in a BT propaganda film “Foreign Sky”, in which Belarusians described the problems of life in exile. It later emerged that both men had been filmed under false pretences.
In November 2025, Usser was detained by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW). He was charged with acting in the interests of a foreign intelligence service against Poland. Due to his health condition, he was not placed in custody. He was first hospitalised and later moved to a shelter in Białystok. He died in early December.
After Usser’s death, Vaitsiakhouski stopped showing up for his job as a taxi driver, deleted his Telegram profile and switched off his phone — and then unexpectedly surfaced in Belarus.