Wargaming IT specialist Hleb Rybchanka has been sentenced to 14 years in a medium-security prison colony, the human rights center Viasna reports.
The Hrodna Regional Court sentenced Rybchanka to 15 years in prison in late 2025 or early 2026. Following an appeal, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 14 years.
The 31-year-old Rybchanka was charged under articles covering incitement of hatred (Part 1 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code), insulting Lukashenka (Part 1 of Article 368 of the Criminal Code), slander against Lukashenka (Parts 1 and 2 of Article 367 of the Criminal Code), discrediting Belarus (Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code), calls for actions aimed at harming Belarus (Part 3 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code), preparation to damage a vehicle or transport routes (Part 1 of Article 13 and Part 4 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code), participation in a terrorist organisation (Part 2 of Article 290-4 of the Criminal Code), and preparation for an act of terrorism by an organised group or resulting in a person’s death (Part 1 of Article 13 and Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code).
Rybchanka was born in Hrodna and lived and worked in St Petersburg for a long time. He worked for Lesta, the Russian subsidiary of Wargaming.
Rybchanka appears in a leaked blacklist database of the Central Bank of Russia. The reason given was the refusal to process a money transfer with the wording that “the operation is being carried out for the purpose of financing terrorism.” It is possible that in March 2022 he tried to donate to the Kalinouski Regiment using a Russian bank card.
The Belarusian KGB has added Rybchanka to its list of “terrorists”.
