1 Million 700 Thousand People Banned From Entering Belarus

1,5 million people have been included into the black list upon Russia’s request, 300 thousand of them are Ukrainians.

Minister of the Interior Ihar Shunevich was asked to comment upon the detention of Ukrainian writer Serhii Zhadan in Minsk, tut.by reports.

— I would like to discuss the fact that he is a famous writer. I have studied the Ukrainian literature for 17 years, and this is the first time I ever heard this name,”— Shunevich has said.

According to the Minister for Internal Affairs, the black list of individuals banned from entering Belarus and Russia, includes 1,7 million people. 1,5 of them were included thereof upon the initiative of Russia, 300 thousand of them are Ukrainians.

— We are obliged to detect these people and detain them. So we did, because the police worked properly. It happened at night, as it was night when they reported that a person connected with terrorism was in Belarus. We couldn’t wait till morning,”— Ihar Shunevich has said.

Important to note, Ukrainian writer Serhii Zgadan was detained in Minsk at night on February 11. It turned out that he had been banned from entering the Russian Federation back in 2015 for “complicity for terrorism”. As Belarus remains in a common visa zone with Russia, the ban automatically expands on Belarus and Kazakhstan. Serhii Zhadan spent the night in the Lenin district police department and got the stamp prohibiting entrance to Belarus, in his passport. A day later, the ban was cancelled.

Later, Head of the Department on Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of the Interior said Aliaksei Biahun told Radio Liberty that it was a technical overlay. The Ukrainian writer’s name is transliterated differently in the passport and in the black list.