Inciting hatred as freedom of speech? 2015 wannabe president blasts arrest of two Belarusophobes
Tatsyana Karatkevich, a 2015 presidential candidate, has criticised the Belarusian authorities for arresting Yury Paulavets and Dzmitry Alimkin, supporters of the so-called ‘Russian world’ and authors of Russia’s chauvinist media outlets. The both were detained on December, 5-6.
The Belarusian Investigative Committee initiated criminal cases under article 130 (inciting hatred) against them. The texts concerned were published on Russian websites Regnum, Lenta.ru, EADaily and authored by Yury Paulavets (pennames Mikalay Radau and Pavel Yuryntsau) and Dzmitry Alimkin (penname Alla Bron). The latter called Belarus a ‘mad pseudostate’.
In an interview with the pro-Kremlin website eadaily, Karatkevich said the duo ‘just expressed their own opinion’.
“Of course, the arrest of these authors is very unpleasant news. I am acquainted with Mr Paulavets; in my opinion, he is a man who expressed his opinion on a number of websites, he was only trying to think out loud. I think the authorities do wrong whe they arrest people for expressing their position,” she said.
At the same time, the politician stressed that she never share the views of the authors of Russian sites as well as their assessments of the situation in Belarus. No one should ‘distort history’, Karatkevich added.
