Natallia Radzina: Within 6 Years of Work from Poland Our Audience Increased Tenfold

Lukashenka is scared to death of independent media.

One of the most popular Belarusian opposition sites Charter-97 was blocked on January 24 on the territory of Belarus by the Ministry of Information, allegedly for distribution of prohibited information. According to the editor-in-chief of the website, Russia cleans its information space.

The editorial office of the site has been located in Poland for several years. The editor-in-chief of the website Natallia Radzina says that it's not the first attack of the authorities, and first of all, she believes it's connected with an increased popularity of the site. The Belarusian authorities fear of it. However, according to her, the blocking of the site ruins the information safety of the country, as a significant number of readers start turning to Russian sites. Radzina, who was earlier accused by the KGB of the "organization of mass riots" before the presidential elections of 2010, believes that it may relate to upcoming presidential elections in 2020. However, an official campaign launches only next year. Natallia Radzina tells in the interview to Ukrainian National News about Russian propaganda in the republic, authors of Belarusian news and Ukrainian "spy" Pavel Sharoiko.

- Please, what, in your opinion, is the reason of other blocking of your site in Belarus? It's not the first time when the authorities try to block Charter-97. What has caused such a hard attack again?

- Over 20 years the website "Charter" has faced all possible repressions: initiation of criminal cases, attacks on offices, confiscation of equipment, detentions of journalists. Finally, before elections of 2010 the founder of the site Aleh Byabenin was murdered (on 3 September 2010 he was found hung in his summer cottage near Minsk - ed. note). Almost all journalists of the site were arrested, I found myself in the KGB prison and was accused of organization of mass riots. Those events made us leave the country.

In 2011 we first managed to restore the editorial office in Lithuania, then we were invited by the Polish government. Since then we have been working from here. Within 6 years of work from Poland our audience has increased tenfold. Now this is the most popular Belarusian independent resource, it's even more popular than all public media combined. I think this is the very reason why the authorities fear of the independent resource. Over 25 years of Lukashenka's reign, he has been destroying the freedom of speech in Belarus: there are no independent television, radio stations, and newspapers. Charter was the last popular independent resource on the Internet. So, I think that fear of our increasing audience in Belarus - 250 thousand unique visitors a day and 2.5 million per month - is the initial reason.

Second, the fear of social upheavals. The day after the blocking of Charter-97, Lukashenka signed a scandalous decree on "spongers", which already caused mass protests last spring. Now the decree is amended, but it is still repressive towards unemployed citizens. Of course, the authorities are afraid of new protests.

Third, the current blocking of the Charter works in favor of Russia. In fact, now Belarus is under a complete information control of the Russian Federation.

- Why do you consider repressive the amended Decree?

- The Decree introduces 100% payment for housing services and utilities and health services for the unemployed. In fact, people are discriminated. The unemployed are offered to starve to death. Because a person has no opportunity to pay for health services. It is hard even for employed people to pay in full for housing services and utilities, to say nothing of the unemployed. And the number of the unemployed is increasing, the country suffers the economic crisis. Many people quit jobs with the salary equaled to $80. To support their families, they have to leave to work for Russia and the EU.

According to the Belarusian legislation, they are all unemployed.

- Does it mean the other way to withdraw the tax earlier stipulated by the decree on "parasitism"?

- Yes. But it does not make any difference. The law remains unconstitutional and unfair.

- Will the abolition of the tax on "parasitism" even a nominal one, decrease the protest sentiment in the society?

- This is the same Decree, but amended. No abolition was made. This is the same decree only with a different name. In fact, it is still unconstitutional towards unemployed citizens. Lukashenka, on the contrary, aggravated the situation.

- Do you think people are ready to take the streets again?

- I think the authorities have concerns about it, that's why they have blocked the most popular independent resource.

- You mentions that the blocking worked in favor of Russia. How popular is the Russian influence in your country?

- It is clear that modern Belarus is the Russia's satellite. Lukashenka is the Kremlin's puppet. How has he managed to stay in power for 25 years? He is a low-skilled ruler. All his dictatorship grounds on Russian money, cheap energy resources from Russia, interest-fee and irrevocable loans. During 25 years Russia has invested hundreds of billions of dollars into the Belarusian dictatorship. Of course, we have absolutely pro-Russian power.

As for the information influence, Belarus freely broadcasts Russian TV channels. It is noteworthy that while destruction of independent Belarusian media, almost all Belarusians watched Russian TV channels and read Russian newspapers. Now a lot of people read Russian news on the Internet. As a result, Putin is much more popular in Belarus than Lukashenka. After all, people got tired of Lukashenka. Everyone can see that all Russian donations are spent on the strengthening of his repressive apparatus, on support of a great number of policemen and special services. Now Belarus heads the list of countries with the number of policemen per 100 thousand people. The number of policemen exceeds the number of those in the Soviet Union by seven times. Can you imagine it?! It's about 1.5 thousand police officers per 100 thousand people!

By the way, Belarusians prefer watching Russian TV channels than Belarusian ones. Unlike the Belarusian TV propaganda, the Russian one is fuelled by huge investments. It turns out that the blocking of "Charter-97" completely ruins the information safety of Belarus. Given our popularity on the Internet, there was a balance. It was about 750 thousand readers of Belarusian sites against the same number of Russian ones. The blocking of our site caused the outflow of 150-200 thousand readers in favor of Russian information sources. Now I offer you to take a look at numbers: 900 000 readers form the Russian segment and, roughly speaking, only 500 thousand readers remain in the Belarusian segment after the blocking of "Charter-97". But the Belarusian segment also involves the Russian mass media. In general, the reliable number of readers on Belarusian sites equals to 300-350 thousand. And this is a catastrophe.

What it can cause? If the information space is completely captured by the Russian media, there is no obstacle for Russia to deploy its tanks and to seize our territory. It bears other consequences - attack on Ukraine, the countries of the West, the Baltic States, Poland becomes possible. It was practiced during military exercises "West-2017".

- Your website published information how to bypass the blocking using anonymizers. Tell me, does it bear any responsibility in Belarus? Can it contribute to restoration of the number of your readers? Will Belarusians use these means?

- Belarusians are already actively using them. Despite the blocking, we remain the leading position among Belarusian independent sites. Of course, laws prohibiting the use of anonymizers, such as Tor, were adopted, but all the same Belarusians bypass the blocking using other tools. In general, Lukashenka has lost this ground. First of all, he is the one who suffers challenges amid the situation with the Charter. The ban is the best ads. In addition, the dictatorship will incur huge international costs due to the largest independent site.

- Russia has a great experience in blocking access of the Internet. It includes the Yarovaya package, KGB claims against messengers, personalization of Internet users and so on. Is Lukashenka ready to adopt this practice?

- I think he is not capable of it. After all, it requires huge amount of money, and the dictatorship has none. Now Russia is not able to completely finance the Lukashenka regime, as it used to be before. First of all, it is caused by the war against Ukraine, the war in Syria and, actually, the fall in oil prices. I think he will fail with it. Plus the reaction of the West is now rising. I think that after this blocking the dictatorship can wave goodbye to Western investments and loans.

- You mentioned that local TV channels also created propaganda content. Ukraine draws attention to the spot, for example, about a vehicle which tried to burst its way through the common border, given the fact that no one saw it. And it was later confirmed by border guards. One of Belarusian TV channels has recently showed footage of the interrogation of Pavel Sharoiko accused of espionage. How would you comment on it? Could he give hostage to certain circumstances?

- Yes, it's true. After all, one should understand that the Belarusian KGB is the branch of the Russian FSB. Therefore, it could be a joint operation or a personal initiative of Lukashenka. Right after the arrest of your journalist, he stated it had been done on his initiative. Lukashenka is definitely gone running to Moscow. It proved once more that Lukashenka could not be an ally of Ukraine. Today citizens of Ukraine are in danger in Belarus. At any moment they can be arrested and taken to Russia, accused of absurd things in Belarus. This is other reason to make Ukrainian leaders to think over futher relations with Belarus. We repeatedly stated that ties with the democratic opposition of Belarus were required. One should make it clear that the opposition is the only guarantor of independence and security of Ukraine.

- Do you receive threats now? How do your journalists continue to work?

-In Belarus it is dangerous to make cooperate with the website "Charter" public. Since our editorial office moved to Poland, we have been receiving information secretly and anonymously. Still there were cases when journalists of Charter were summoned to the KGB; they were threatened, blackmailed and forced to refuse to work with us.

- Does Lukashenka already get preparations for the election campaign? Does the blocking of the Charter mean the first step?

- It may be the point. Next year the election campaign can officially start. After all, both the parliamentary and presidential elections follow in a row. Of course, Lukashenka fears that public unrest can happen. Belarusians are tired of being ignored, the dictator comes up with figures on the elections and shamelessly practices the election fraud.