Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06MINSK976
2006-09-11 13:01:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Minsk
Cable title:
PRO-REGIME NEO-NAZIS INTIMIDATE INDEPENDENT MEDIA,
how-toVZCZCXRO8309 PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR DE RUEHSK #0976/01 2541301 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 111301Z SEP 06 ZDK FM AMEMBASSY MINSK TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5060 INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE PRIORITY 1272 RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000976
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BO
SUBJECT: PRO-REGIME NEO-NAZIS INTIMIDATE INDEPENDENT MEDIA,
OPPOSITION
REF: 99 MINSK 535
MINSK 00000976 001.2 OF 002
Classified By: Charge Jonathan Moore for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MINSK 000976
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BO
SUBJECT: PRO-REGIME NEO-NAZIS INTIMIDATE INDEPENDENT MEDIA,
OPPOSITION
REF: 99 MINSK 535
MINSK 00000976 001.2 OF 002
Classified By: Charge Jonathan Moore for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: Following March's stolen presidential
elections, the pro-government, pan-Russian, neo-Nazi group
"Russian National Unity" (RNE) appears to have undertaken a
campaign of intimidation against Belarus' independent media
and opposition political parties. This campaign apparently
includes threatening letters and planting a fake explosive at
an opposition party headquarters. Independent journalists
and opposition activists have long suspected cooperation
between the RNE and GOB security services. Although
cooperation has not been directly proven, the GOB appears
both to permit and benefit from RNE's ongoing threats against
critics of the regime. End summary.
Targeting Opposition Media
--------------
2. (C) On August 14, the independent newspaper "Vitebsky
Kuryer" received a letter containing threats from the leaders
of the Vitebsk chapter of Russian National Unity (RNE). The
letter decries the Vitebsky Kuryer as "financed by American
and German enemies of Russia" and demands the paper to stop
publishing articles aimed at breaking "the unity of Slavic
nations." The letter also condemned the Vitebsky Kuryer for
"discrediting" the Belarusian government and President
Lukashenko who are "fighting an all-out battle for the
greatness of the Slavic peoples against liberals of various
hues who seek to enslave the great Russian people." The
letter threatened to use its GOB contacts to shut down the
Vitebsky Kuryer, and ended with the salutation "Glory to
Russia!"
3. (C) On August 23, Charge met with Vitebsky Kuryer
Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Bazan in Vitebsk to discuss the RNE
threat. Bazan showed Charge the RNE letter to confirm its
reported content. In the upper left corner of the letter was
a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon and the phrase, "We are
cleansing Russia." Bazan was visibly shaken and expressed to
Charge fear that RNE could use its GOB contacts to close the
Vitebsky Kuryer. Bazan recalled that the authorities had
evicted the paper from its previous office. (Note: The
Vitebsky Kuryer now shares office space with a taxi dispatch
company. End note.) When asked, Bazan could not prove
direct GOB-RNE linkage, but noted that the GOB, in forcing
the paper to move has, has carried out the RNE's threats.
4. (C) On August 22, Poloff discussed the RNE threat to
Vitebsk Kuryer with Mikhail Pastukhov of the independent
media-advocacy organization Belarusian Association of
Journalists. Pastukhov observed that the RNE supports the
government and has been allowed to operate despite the
apparent threats to independent newspapers. He also referred
to RNE graffiti incidents over recent months in Baranovichi
and several other cities outside Minsk against members of the
independent media. Pastukhov noted many independent
journalists suspect that the GOB directs RNE actions. When
Poloff asked Pastukhov whether he believes there is a
connection between the government and the RNE, he replied
that such a connection is difficult to prove but noted that
the group supports the Lukashenko government and operates
with impunity.
Targeting Opposition Parties
--------------
5. (C) The RNE threats against the Vitebsky Kuryer and other
independent media parallel RNE efforts to intimidate
opposition parties. On April 14, the chapters of opposition
parties Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) and Belarusian
Popular Front (BPF) in the eastern region of Mogilev sent a
complaint to the regional BKGB administration about RNE
vandalism and other activities directed against opposition
organizations. The BPC and BPF noted that the RNE is an
unregistered organization and thus operates illegally but
received no answer from the BKGB. (Note: At the time of the
BPC-BPF complaint, the GOB was criminally prosecuting leaders
of pro-democracy NGOs, including "Partnership" and "Malady
Front." End note.)
6. (C) On April 16, 15 RNE skinheads disrupted a sanctioned
demonstration in People's Friendship Park in support of
imprisoned opposition presidential candidate Aleksandr
Kozulin by smashing stands, burning BSDP leaflets, stomping
on BSDP streamers, breaking a portrait of Kozulin, and
shouting "Lukashenko is our president!" The vandals also
MINSK 00000976 002.2 OF 002
yelled anti-Semitic and racial epithets. A few minutes
before the RNE attack, police reportedly left the vicinity.
7. (C) On July 20, Vitebsk opposition United Civic Party
leader Yelena Zalesskaya reported her party had received a
threatening letter from RNE. The letter described Zalesskaya
as an implacable enemy of "Great Russia" and demanded that
she end her opposition to the Lukashenko regime lest she face
RNE "actions."
8. (C) On August 17, a fake explosive device was found
attached to a door of the offices of BPF party. Pictures
published by the state newspaper "Sovetskaya Belarus" show
that the device was a dark green container adorned with a
neo-Nazi emblem and filled with RNE leaflets. According to
BPF leader Vinstuk Vyachorka, RNE symbols earlier had been
painted on the BPF office's doors.
9. (C) On August 18, an RNE spokesman denied any connection
between RNE and the bomb hoax. However, on August 21, BPF
Deputy Head Aleksei Yanukevich told Poloff that at least
twice in the past year the BPF had received letters from RNE,
which BPF had never opened. Yanukevich also noted that the
RNE had threatened the BPF chapter in Grodno four to five
years earlier. When Poloff asked Yanukevich whether the RNE
targeted his party because of a specific BPF action or
political platform, he replied that the dummy bomb was just
another RNE act of intimidation against groups opposed to the
Lukashenko regime and repeatedly characterized the RNE as a
surrogate for the BKGB and other GOB security services.
An RNE-GOB Connection?
--------------
10. (C) RNE has long been accused of having ties to the BKGB
and other security services. In February 1999, RNE activists
assaulted opposition website Charter 97 founder Andrey
Sannikov. While Sannikov did not directly blame the GOB for
the assault, he did accuse the regime of creating conditions
in Belarus that attracted Russian skinheads and asserted the
Belarusian police and other security services had wide
contacts and cooperated with the RNE (reftel).
11. (C) While direct evidence to substantiate an RNE-GOB
connection remains to be found, the RNE's unwavering support
for the Lukashenko regime, despite the apparent involvement
of GOB security services in assassinating the leader of the
RNE in 2000, suggests such a connection. (Note: On February
4, 2004, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of
the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly issued a
report that detailed, among other suspicious murders and
disappearances in Belarus, the GOB's November 2000 arrest of
Colonel Dmitriy Pavlichenko, founder of the GOB special
operations unit SOBR, for his alleged ordering of the
assassination of then-RNE leader G.V. Samailov. One day
later, authorities released Pavlichenko without charge or
explanation.)
12. (U) In May and August, a group of civil society
activists, including historians and former political
prisoners, sent a petition to the GOB Prosecutor General and
BKGB headquarters to condemn neo-Nazi vandalism of the
Kurapaty massacre site near Minsk, a memorial to the
Belarusian writer Vladimir Korotevich in Vitebsk, and a
mosque in Slonim and to call upon the BKGB to address the
apparent revival of neo-Nazism in Belarus. As of September
1, neither the Prosecutor General nor the BKGB has answered
the petition.
Comment
--------------
13. (C) Despite Yanukevich's certainty regarding who
ultimately is responsible for the threats against the
Vitebsky Kuryer and the BPF, the direct connection between
the RNE and the BKGB remains nebulous; the GOB will maintain
a consistent level of distance and deniability in any case.
However, it is clear that the Lukashenko regime benefits from
RNE's campaign of intimidation against independent media and
the opposition parties.
Moore
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL BO
SUBJECT: PRO-REGIME NEO-NAZIS INTIMIDATE INDEPENDENT MEDIA,
OPPOSITION
REF: 99 MINSK 535
MINSK 00000976 001.2 OF 002
Classified By: Charge Jonathan Moore for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: Following March's stolen presidential
elections, the pro-government, pan-Russian, neo-Nazi group
"Russian National Unity" (RNE) appears to have undertaken a
campaign of intimidation against Belarus' independent media
and opposition political parties. This campaign apparently
includes threatening letters and planting a fake explosive at
an opposition party headquarters. Independent journalists
and opposition activists have long suspected cooperation
between the RNE and GOB security services. Although
cooperation has not been directly proven, the GOB appears
both to permit and benefit from RNE's ongoing threats against
critics of the regime. End summary.
Targeting Opposition Media
--------------
2. (C) On August 14, the independent newspaper "Vitebsky
Kuryer" received a letter containing threats from the leaders
of the Vitebsk chapter of Russian National Unity (RNE). The
letter decries the Vitebsky Kuryer as "financed by American
and German enemies of Russia" and demands the paper to stop
publishing articles aimed at breaking "the unity of Slavic
nations." The letter also condemned the Vitebsky Kuryer for
"discrediting" the Belarusian government and President
Lukashenko who are "fighting an all-out battle for the
greatness of the Slavic peoples against liberals of various
hues who seek to enslave the great Russian people." The
letter threatened to use its GOB contacts to shut down the
Vitebsky Kuryer, and ended with the salutation "Glory to
Russia!"
3. (C) On August 23, Charge met with Vitebsky Kuryer
Editor-in-Chief Vladimir Bazan in Vitebsk to discuss the RNE
threat. Bazan showed Charge the RNE letter to confirm its
reported content. In the upper left corner of the letter was
a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon and the phrase, "We are
cleansing Russia." Bazan was visibly shaken and expressed to
Charge fear that RNE could use its GOB contacts to close the
Vitebsky Kuryer. Bazan recalled that the authorities had
evicted the paper from its previous office. (Note: The
Vitebsky Kuryer now shares office space with a taxi dispatch
company. End note.) When asked, Bazan could not prove
direct GOB-RNE linkage, but noted that the GOB, in forcing
the paper to move has, has carried out the RNE's threats.
4. (C) On August 22, Poloff discussed the RNE threat to
Vitebsk Kuryer with Mikhail Pastukhov of the independent
media-advocacy organization Belarusian Association of
Journalists. Pastukhov observed that the RNE supports the
government and has been allowed to operate despite the
apparent threats to independent newspapers. He also referred
to RNE graffiti incidents over recent months in Baranovichi
and several other cities outside Minsk against members of the
independent media. Pastukhov noted many independent
journalists suspect that the GOB directs RNE actions. When
Poloff asked Pastukhov whether he believes there is a
connection between the government and the RNE, he replied
that such a connection is difficult to prove but noted that
the group supports the Lukashenko government and operates
with impunity.
Targeting Opposition Parties
--------------
5. (C) The RNE threats against the Vitebsky Kuryer and other
independent media parallel RNE efforts to intimidate
opposition parties. On April 14, the chapters of opposition
parties Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) and Belarusian
Popular Front (BPF) in the eastern region of Mogilev sent a
complaint to the regional BKGB administration about RNE
vandalism and other activities directed against opposition
organizations. The BPC and BPF noted that the RNE is an
unregistered organization and thus operates illegally but
received no answer from the BKGB. (Note: At the time of the
BPC-BPF complaint, the GOB was criminally prosecuting leaders
of pro-democracy NGOs, including "Partnership" and "Malady
Front." End note.)
6. (C) On April 16, 15 RNE skinheads disrupted a sanctioned
demonstration in People's Friendship Park in support of
imprisoned opposition presidential candidate Aleksandr
Kozulin by smashing stands, burning BSDP leaflets, stomping
on BSDP streamers, breaking a portrait of Kozulin, and
shouting "Lukashenko is our president!" The vandals also
MINSK 00000976 002.2 OF 002
yelled anti-Semitic and racial epithets. A few minutes
before the RNE attack, police reportedly left the vicinity.
7. (C) On July 20, Vitebsk opposition United Civic Party
leader Yelena Zalesskaya reported her party had received a
threatening letter from RNE. The letter described Zalesskaya
as an implacable enemy of "Great Russia" and demanded that
she end her opposition to the Lukashenko regime lest she face
RNE "actions."
8. (C) On August 17, a fake explosive device was found
attached to a door of the offices of BPF party. Pictures
published by the state newspaper "Sovetskaya Belarus" show
that the device was a dark green container adorned with a
neo-Nazi emblem and filled with RNE leaflets. According to
BPF leader Vinstuk Vyachorka, RNE symbols earlier had been
painted on the BPF office's doors.
9. (C) On August 18, an RNE spokesman denied any connection
between RNE and the bomb hoax. However, on August 21, BPF
Deputy Head Aleksei Yanukevich told Poloff that at least
twice in the past year the BPF had received letters from RNE,
which BPF had never opened. Yanukevich also noted that the
RNE had threatened the BPF chapter in Grodno four to five
years earlier. When Poloff asked Yanukevich whether the RNE
targeted his party because of a specific BPF action or
political platform, he replied that the dummy bomb was just
another RNE act of intimidation against groups opposed to the
Lukashenko regime and repeatedly characterized the RNE as a
surrogate for the BKGB and other GOB security services.
An RNE-GOB Connection?
--------------
10. (C) RNE has long been accused of having ties to the BKGB
and other security services. In February 1999, RNE activists
assaulted opposition website Charter 97 founder Andrey
Sannikov. While Sannikov did not directly blame the GOB for
the assault, he did accuse the regime of creating conditions
in Belarus that attracted Russian skinheads and asserted the
Belarusian police and other security services had wide
contacts and cooperated with the RNE (reftel).
11. (C) While direct evidence to substantiate an RNE-GOB
connection remains to be found, the RNE's unwavering support
for the Lukashenko regime, despite the apparent involvement
of GOB security services in assassinating the leader of the
RNE in 2000, suggests such a connection. (Note: On February
4, 2004, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of
the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly issued a
report that detailed, among other suspicious murders and
disappearances in Belarus, the GOB's November 2000 arrest of
Colonel Dmitriy Pavlichenko, founder of the GOB special
operations unit SOBR, for his alleged ordering of the
assassination of then-RNE leader G.V. Samailov. One day
later, authorities released Pavlichenko without charge or
explanation.)
12. (U) In May and August, a group of civil society
activists, including historians and former political
prisoners, sent a petition to the GOB Prosecutor General and
BKGB headquarters to condemn neo-Nazi vandalism of the
Kurapaty massacre site near Minsk, a memorial to the
Belarusian writer Vladimir Korotevich in Vitebsk, and a
mosque in Slonim and to call upon the BKGB to address the
apparent revival of neo-Nazism in Belarus. As of September
1, neither the Prosecutor General nor the BKGB has answered
the petition.
Comment
--------------
13. (C) Despite Yanukevich's certainty regarding who
ultimately is responsible for the threats against the
Vitebsky Kuryer and the BPF, the direct connection between
the RNE and the BKGB remains nebulous; the GOB will maintain
a consistent level of distance and deniability in any case.
However, it is clear that the Lukashenko regime benefits from
RNE's campaign of intimidation against independent media and
the opposition parties.
Moore