'There is Russian World': Ukrainian journalists accused of taking 'extremist' books in Belarus

The unfortunate incident happened at the Ukraine-Belarus border. Oleksandr Doniy and his colleagues working for the programme ‘Last Barricade’ aired by Ukrainian Central TV channel were going to Vilnius through Belarus. They were detained and kept within 5 hours, Doniy said on Facebook.

The Ukrainians were accused of ‘attempted smuggling of extremist literature and audio products’. The Belarusian side seized 11 books and 5 DVDs of the movie ‘The Ukrainian Revolution’ dedicated to the events of 1917-1921, CDs ‘The Musical Hundred. Maidan, records of the programme ‘Last Barricade’ and a disc containing the film about a famine genocide in Ukraine in 1930s.

The inscription on the journalists’ minibus – ‘Ostannya Barikada’ [Last Barricade] – was considered as a ‘provocative act’. The Belarusian border guards even demanded to tear it off. They refused to take into account the fact that it was the title of the program about the culture that the detainees make.

After this incident, Oleksandr Doniy made an uncomlimentary post about Belarus on his Facebook:

“I do not advise anyone to go to Belarus. There is the Soviet Union, there is the ‘Russian world’, there is a scent of Russia,” the Ukrainian reporter commented on the situation.