{"id":599467,"date":"2026-11-05T20:47:34","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=599467"},"modified":"2026-11-05T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T19:26:12","slug":"kgb-intimidating-belarusians-in-the-us-tsikhanouskaya-s-office-offers-advice-on-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/kgb-intimidating-belarusians-in-the-us-tsikhanouskaya-s-office-offers-advice-on-what-to-do","title":{"rendered":"KGB Intimidating Belarusians in the US. Tsikhanouskaya&#8217;s Office Offers Advice on What to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The Office of <strong>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/tsikhanouskaya\/9981\">reported<\/a> that its Legal Department has been receiving reports of pressure being exerted on Belarusians living in the United States. Unknown individuals claiming to represent Belarusian law enforcement agencies are contacting them through messaging apps, asking about their participation in protests and political views, the activities of Belarusians abroad, and threatening to pass information about them to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leanid Marozau<\/strong>, Tsikhanouskaya&#8217;s legal adviser, said he was ready to offer guidance on possible ways to protect themselves.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The Lukashenka regime continues its attempts to persecute Belarusians even thousands of kilometres away from Belarus. Such actions are unlawful and bear the hallmarks of transnational repression. At the same time, threats to involve ICE appear to be primarily an intimidation tactic. We are ready to help assess the situation and suggest possible protection mechanisms. Belarusians have the right to live freely and safely, regardless of the country in which they reside,&#8221;<\/em> he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Belarusians who receive such messages or calls are advised not to engage in discussions with the callers or answer questions about their political views and activities.<\/p>\n<p>They are also advised to preserve evidence of the pressure, including correspondence, phone numbers, usernames and links to profiles on Telegram, Facebook and other social media platforms. Anyone recording conversations should take into account the laws of the relevant US state.<\/p>\n<p>The Office recommends contacting the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which investigates cases of transnational repression. The bureau can be contacted not only by US citizens but also by Belarusians with other immigration statuses.<\/p>\n<p>Belarusians are also advised to warn relatives back home about possible pressure from security forces. After preserving the evidence, they can use the &#8220;Report&#8221; function to flag suspicious social media accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Those who have experienced similar incidents are encouraged to contact human rights organizations or the Legal Department of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya&#8217;s Office at <a href=\"mailto:legal@tsikhanouskaya.org\">legal@tsikhanouskaya.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya reported that its Legal Department has been receiving reports of pressure being exerted on Belarusians living in the United States. Unknown individuals claiming to represent Belarusian law enforcement agencies are contacting them through messaging apps, asking about their participation in protests and political views, the activities of Belarusians abroad, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":599468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/6aecd85810732.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"KGB Intimidating Belarusians in the US. Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s Office Offers Advice on What to Do"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143090],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":599469,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599467\/revisions\/599469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}