This action will in no way affect the activities of the BNR Rada, its interaction with the democratic forces of Belarus and its support for Belarusian volunteers who are fighting for the freedom and independence of Ukraine.

Furthermore, the illegal decisions and actions of the Lukashenka regime, driven by its extremist ideology, including those of a pseudo-juridical nature, add to the list of actions subject to criminal prosecution once legal order is restored on the territory of Belarus.

The accusations against the Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, including statements about its alleged denial of the independence of Belarus, are obviously false and absurd, especially considering that the BNR Rada first declared Belarus a sovereign state on 25 March 1918, thereby initiating the history of the modern independent Belarus.

Also, the BNR Rada reminds that it has repeatedly condemned the totalitarian regimes that committed crimes on the territory of Belarus, including the regime of the German National Socialists.

In particular, in its statement on 22 June 2021, adopted on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Belarus, the BNR Rada said the following:

“The BNR Rada stands in solidarity with the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal in condemning proven war crimes committed on the territory of Belarus by German troops and their allies, including both Belarusians, and Russian nationalists, and representatives of other countries. The BNR Rada condemns all organisations recognised as criminal by the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

At the same time, the BNR Rada condemns the abuse of the tragedy of the Second World War by the propaganda of the totalitarian Soviet regime and its modern heirs.

The communist authorities used the trauma of the Belarusian people from the war in order to manipulate our people, to incite hatred towards other countries, to hide the memory of mass Soviet political terror and mass Soviet war crimes, as well as to strengthen their criminal anti-Belarusian political regime.

The BNR Rada declares that Aliaksandr Lukashenka, the former president of Belarus, is the only head of a modern European state who is an open ideological follower of both the Soviet and Hitler’s regimes.

A. Lukashenka publicly made anti-Semitic statements and statements about the inferiority of the Belarusian language, culture and statehood.

A. Lukashenka publicly expressed his admiration for the political practices of A. Hitler. During his almost three decades of illegal rule, he modeled Belarus’ political system on Hitler’s principles, showing contempt for democratic freedoms, human rights, and for parliamentary democracy, while consolidating absolute power.”

In addition, in its statement on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War on 8 May 2015, the BNR Rada stated the following:

“The victory over National Socialist Germany, to which the Belarusian people had made an important contribution, saved millions of people from the direct threat of physical extermination. Unfortunately, as a result of the war, Belarus did not gain freedom, but remained under Soviet occupation for almost 50 years, which was accompanied by Russification and repression against dissenters, including supporters of the state sovereignty of Belarus.

Humanity must honor the memory of the victims of the Second World War and do everything to ensure that such wars never happen again.”

Below are links to statements and publications of the BNR Rada on this topic:

Statement of the BNR Rada on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (08/05/2015, in English):

STATEMENT OF THE BNR RADA ON THE OCCASION OF THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF WORLD WAR II

Declaration of memory and solidarity (30/10/2016, in English):

DECLARATION OF MEMORY AND SOLIDARITY

International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27/01/2017, in Belarusian)

Міжнародны дзень памяці ахвяраў Галакосту

European Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Nazism and Stalinism (23/08/2017, in Belarusian):

Эўрапейскі дзень памяці ахвяраў нацызма і сталінізма

Statement of the BNR Rada on the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (23/08/2019, in English):

Statement of the BNR Rada on the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The memory of the Second World War should be the foundation of peace, freedom and democracy – Statement of the BNR Rada (22/06/2021):

MEMORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR SHOULD BE THE FOUNDATION OF PEACE, FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY – STATEMENT BY THE BNR RADA

(Unofficial translation from Belarusian)

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The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (the BNR Rada), founded in 1917, is the oldest active Belarusian governmental institution. Since 1918, the BNR Rada has served as the temporary supreme governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, the first Belarusian democratic state whose independence was declared on 25 March 1918. The BNR Rada was forced to relocate from Belarus in 1919 due to the invasion by Soviet Russia and has been operating in exile ever since, now representing a more than a century old Belarusian democratic political tradition.

Belarus (the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) has traditionally been a place of religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence of different religious communities: the Greek-Catholic majority, as well as the Roman-Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant minorities, as well as non-Christian minorities, primarily represented by Muslims and Jews who found refuge in Belarus after exile from other countries. Tolerance and respect for diversity were, are, and will remain among the main values for the Belarusian people.

The main source of inter-religious tension in Belarus is the Russian Orthodox Church, forcibly imposed on Belarusians in the first half of the 19th century, and in its current form shaped in the Stalinist USSR in 1943 and represented today by a fully Russian-controlled exarchate under the false name “Belarusian Orthodox Church”. During its activity on the territory of Belarus, this organization showed itself primarily not as a church, but as a Russian colonial institution, an instrument of Russification and pressure on traditional Belarusian Christian churches, to which the Russian Orthodox Church itself does not belong. During the Soviet era, the Russian Orthodox Church was an instrument in the hands of the totalitarian Soviet regime, which carried out a policy of ethnocide of Belarusians and political terror against any dissidents. Many ROC hierarchs were part of the KGB, a criminal organisation, and remain agents of the secret political police of the authoritarian regimes of Lukashenka and Russia’s Putin.

In modern Belarus, the Russian Orthodox Church is one of the ideological pillars of A. Lukashenka’s regime and enjoys unjustified privileges from the authoritarian state, while many other Belarusian Christian churches suffer discrimination, confiscation of property and repression against priests. Belarusian autocephalous Orthodoxy, which is a true continuation of local Orthodox traditions in Belarusian lands from the Middle Ages and which for many years was and remains one of the spiritual supports of many Belarusians in exile, is forced to exist in Belarus under conditions of particularly severe persecution.

Contrary to the fundamentals of Christian teaching, the so-called “Belarusian Orthodox Church” does not condemn the violence, murders and torture for which Lukashenka’s regime is responsible. On the contrary, priests and activists who stand on honest Christian – and especially on democratic and pro-Belarusian – positions are systematically and purposefully forced to leave the ranks of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. For decades, the Russian Orthodox Church has been indoctrinating Orthodox Belarusians in the spirit of Russian nationalism and the so-called “Russian world”.

The Russian Orthodox Church most eloquently manifested its essence in the context of the current war between Russia and Ukraine. The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church and its Belarusian Exarchate openly supports Russian military aggression and blesses Russian invaders who commit war crimes on the territory of Ukraine. The structures of the so-called “Belarusian Orthodox Church” were seen collecting material aid for the Russian aggressors.

The activities of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church should be the subject of close investigation by law enforcement and constitutional order bodies in the future democratic Belarus. The so-called “Belarusian Orthodox Church” of the Moscow Patriarchate is responsible for promoting extremist anti-state ideology, supporting Russian aggression in Ukraine and supporting the dictatorial regime in Belarus.

Traditional Belarusian churches of the Eastern rite, including the Belarusian Greek-Catholic Church and the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, have the full right to independently determine their internal organisational structure, and should enjoy all the support of the future democratic Belarusian state as institutions of historical and spiritual value.

Now, this warning has become a reality – Moscow and Minsk have signed a deal that will allow the deployment of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons in Belarusian facilities.

The Rada BNR emphasizes that the Republic of Belarus doesn’t have a legitimate governement — Aliaksandar Lukashenka has usurped power. He and his cronies have no authority to make decisions for the Belarusian people.

For the first time since the existence of the USSR, this deal by Moscow and Minsk not only positions Belarusians as a target for a retaliatory nuclear strike, but also as a target for a preventive nuclear strike.

The Rada BNR calls the governments and the parliaments of the democratic world to support the Belarusian people in their struggle against the Putin-Lukashenka occupation.

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The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (the BNR Rada), founded in 1917, is the oldest active Belarusian governmental institution. Since 1918, the BNR Rada has served as the temporary supreme governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, the first Belarusian democratic state whose independence was declared on 25 March 1918. The BNR Rada was forced to relocate from Belarus in 1919 due to the invasion by Soviet Russia and has been operating in exile ever since, now representing a more than a century old Belarusian democratic political tradition.

Lukashenka does not limit himself to crimes against the Belarusian nation. He began to act inhumanely in the international dimension. The situation on the borders of the three EU countries is absolutely unacceptable. Without decisive measures, Lukashenka will continue the genocide of the Belarusian nation and the terror of citizens of other countries. The situation in Belarus has long gone beyond the internal political crisis. Lukashenka is involved in crimes against humanity as a whole.

Homeland security of the European countries and fundamental humanitarian values both require external intervention in the Belarusian crisis. Decisive action against Lukashenka and his perpetrators, and against the obvious political and economic sponsors of his regime in Russia, is the only way to stop new victims among Belarusians and foreigners.

By building defense structures on the border with Belarus, the EU is only helping Russia, as it puts Belarus under Russia’s zone of influence. The problem with foreign migrants on the Belarusian border should be solved by the tougher measures against the Lukashenko regime, and not against the Belarusian people. The physical wall is the creation of a ghetto for the Belarusian nation. Isn’t that what Putin is seeking by patronizing the border crisis.

The democratic countries of Europe are obliged to take the initiative in their own hands and from the hands of the aggressor. History shows that if political blackmail is not stopped in time by the international community, the behavior of dictators becomes more brutal. Belarusian democratic Belarus has become a fundamental necessity and a global humanitarian goal.

Our state sovereignty was the result of the struggle waged by Belarusians for many generations. Thousands of our compatriots sacrificed their lives and freedom in order to make Belarus an independent, universally recognized state, equal to others.

On August 25, 1991, our people achieved this goal.

Today we celebrate not just the proclamation, but the restoration of independence of Belarus. The statehood of the Belarusian people has a thousand-year history, which includes the Duchy of Połack and other medieval states, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as well as the first revival of the Belarusian state as the Belarusian Democratic Republic.

Our people, like no other in Europe, know the price of losing independence. When a country is occupied and divided by neighboring empires, it is very difficult for it to regain independence. The people of this country are forced to suffer humiliation and loss.

Today’s authoritarian regime in Belarus is also a direct consequence of 70 years of occupation, decades of terror and anti-Belarusian Soviet indoctrination.

We managed to revive our independent state. This is our great historical victory. And we, Belarusians, must cherish the independence gained, and not allow it to be endangered by foreign adversaries or by dishonest politicians inside Belarus.

Belarus now faces another important historical task of gaining democracy and freedom. The Belarusian people are worthy of them, and they are able to achieve them. May the memory of the revival of independence and the pride of our victory of 1991 inspire us in this.

(translated from Belarusian)

Despite the illegal nature of the election, the use of administrative resources and state propaganda, the illegal removal and arrest of many strong candidates who challenged the current regime, former President Aliaksandr Lukashenka has failed to win the election. The whole of Belarus and the whole world were convinced of that.

According to available sociological data and according to many available protocols from polling stations, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a clear winner of last year’s presidential election.

Mass nationwide protests, which were unprecedented in their scale and lasted for several months, convincingly demonstrate that the Lukashenka regime lacks the support of Belarusian society.

The regime managed to quell the protests only through brutal violence and mass torture of peaceful protesters, which led to several deaths. The Lukashenka regime has demonstrated its inhuman nature to the world.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka is not the President of the Republic of Belarus and must resign immediately. The hijacking of a Ryanair plane to abduct fugitive Raman Pratasevich and the migration crisis artificially created by Lukashenka in 2021 on the border with the Republic of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia, are acts of state terrorism and demonstrate that Lukashenka’s regime is a threat to stability and security.

At the same time, the BNR Rada once again states that the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka managed to survive in 2020 and carry out terror and aggression against the citizens of Belarus and European countries solely due to political and material support from Russia. This support included the provision or willingness to provide police forces to suppress the protests. The Russian Federation shares responsibility for crimes committed by the regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

The BNR Rada expresses its support to the activities of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her office aimed at bringing democratic change to Belarus.

The BNR Rada calls on the international community to exert all possible pressure, including the toughest economic sanctions, on the Lukashenka regime, as well as on its political and economic sponsor, the regime of Vladimir Putin in Russia, with the aim to hold a nationwide dialogue in Belarus and hold fair democratic presidential and parliamentary elections in Belarus.

We call on the representatives of the Belarusian diaspora to actively spread information about the events in Belarus in their countries of residence, to participate in public protests dedicated to Belarus, to unite and organize to help Belarus.

We call on the people of Belarus not to lose faith in our common victory, to support the victims of repression and to unite for future decisive pressure on the regime.

In its statement dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the BNR Rada noted:

 “More than a quarter of the population of Belarus died in the war. This figure includes deaths from all sides of the front, as well as all civilians killed. A significant part of the victims (up to 800,000) were Belarusian Jews, who were purposefully exterminated by the Nazis.

The war began for Belarus in September 1939, when Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR attacked Poland after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. All stages of the war were accompanied by mass terror against the civilian population committed by all parties to the conflict.

 The victory over Nazi Germany, to which the Belarusians made an important contribution, saved millions of people from the direct threat of physical extermination. Unfortunately, as a result of the war, Belarus did not gain freedom, but remained under Soviet occupation for almost 50 years, accompanied by Russification and repression against dissidents, including supporters of Belarus’ state sovereignty.”

 The BNR Rada reiterates its strong condemnation of all the totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century, especially Hitler’s National Socialism alongside Soviet communism.

 The BNR Rada stands in solidarity with the decisions of the Nuremberg Tribunal in condemning the proven war crimes committed on the territory of Belarus by German troops and their allies, including both Belarusians, and Russian nationalists, and representatives of other countries. The BNR Rada condemns all organizations recognized as criminal by the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

 At the same time, the BNR Rada condemns the propagandist abuse of the topic of the tragedy of the Second World War by the totalitarian Soviet regime and its modern successors.

 The communist authorities used the enormous trauma of the Belarusian people from the war to manipulate our people, incite enmity towards other countries, hide the memory of mass Soviet political terror and mass Soviet war crimes, and to strengthen the criminal anti-Belarusian Soviet regime.

 The BNR Rada states that the former President of Belarus Aliaksandar Lukashenka is the only head of a modern European state who is an open ideological follower of both the Soviet and Nazi regimes.

 A. Lukashenka publicly made anti-Semitic statements and statements about the inferiority of the Belarusian language, culture and statehood.

 A. Lukashenka publicly expressed admiration for Hitler’s political practices. During almost three decades of his illegal rule, A. Lukashenka has built the political system of Belarus in accordance with Hitler’s principles of contempt for democratic freedoms and human rights, contempt for parliamentary democracy, and concentration of absolute power in one hand.

 The true memory of the Second World War and its victims, of the crimes of the National Socialist and Communist regimes in Belarus, should be the foundation of awareness of the value of peace, freedom and democracy for Belarusians and people around the world.

(unofficial translation from Belarusian)

 (illustration: memorial in Mały Traścianiec former concentration camp)

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The Rada of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (the BNR Rada), founded in 1917, is the oldest active Belarusian governmental institution. Since 1918, the BNR Rada has served as the temporary supreme governing body of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, the first Belarusian democratic state whose independence was declared on 25 March 1918. The BNR Rada was forced to relocate from Belarus in 1919 due to the invasion by Soviet Russia and has been operating in exile ever since, now representing a more than a century old Belarusian democratic political tradition.

Vitold Ašurak, illegally sentenced to five years in prison, died under unexplained circumstances after reporting in a letter about the humiliating practice of Lukashenka’s prisons to label political prisoners with yellow name tags. In addition to the disgusting parallel with the practice of the Nazis marking Jews yellow during the Holocaust, political prisoners in Belarusian prisons suffer additional discrimination compared to those convicted of criminal offenses. Unbearable and degrading living conditions are created for political prisoners, they are tortured and beaten by prison guards.

Given the sad precedents and the opacity of Lukashenka’s prison system, it is likely that the inexplicable death of Vitold Ašurak was the result of revenge for his actions to make such practices public.

Raman Pratasievič, a former editor of the influential protest Telegram channel NEXTA, was abducted as a result of a special operation by Lukashenka’s security services, which reportedly included tracking him abroad and forcing a plane he took from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk on a fake pretext.

The BNR Rada states that the actions of the Lukashenka regime to capture Raman Pratasievič not only contradict many international norms and agreements to which the Republic of Belarus is a party, but can also be classified as an act of international terrorism in which the Republic of Belarus led by former President Aliaksandr Lukashenka acts as a terrorist state. The actions of Lukashenka-controlled state services, including aviation and the secret police, pose a threat to both Belarusians and citizens of other countries.

The BNR Rada demands immediate, transparent and honest investigation of the death of Vitold Ašurak and the prosecution of all those responsible for the death of this prominent public figure.

The BNR Rada demands the immediate release of Raman Pratasievič and all other political prisoners in Belarus.

The BNR Rada calls on the international community to exert all possible pressure, including economic sanctions and expulsion from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), on the Lukashenka regime and its political and economic sponsor, the Russian Federation, to release all Belarusian political prisoners.

The events of 2020 in Belarus are the largest and most brutal suppression of peaceful democratic protests in a European country in many decades.

The accomplices of police terror in Belarus are public and private enterprises that exert illegal pressure on striking workers, or banks that illegally confiscate money raised by to help victims of repression. Some foreign companies are involved in the crimes of the Lukashenka regime as well, such as mobile operators restricting communication during protests by order of the authorities to prevent the prompt publication of information about the events.

The BNR Rada calls for the widest and strongest sanctions against the Lukashenka regime and its accomplices. These sanctions may include an embargo on imports of petroleum products, potash fertilizers and other products of Belarusian state-owned enterprises, disconnection of Belarusian banks from SWIFT, seizure of foreign accounts of state-owned enterprises and other measures. The security forces of the Lukashenka regime, responsible for systematic violence and killings, should be declared criminal organizations: these include OMON, SOBR, the KGB and others.

The BNR Rada calls, at the same time, to exert all possible international influence on the Russian Federation, whose political, material and propagandist support is a key factor in maintaining the dictatorship in Belarus.

By continuing to support the Lukashenka regime, the Russian Federation shares responsibility for the political terror in Belarus, for the torture and killing of peaceful Belarusians.

There is a consensus in Belarusian society about the unacceptability of violence and the need for an open and honest nationwide political dialogue. The vast majority of Belarusians do not accept the methods of Lukashenka’s rule, dispersal of peaceful protests, torture and assassination of political opponents. Belarus wants to be a free democratic European country and have friendly relations with all its neighbors. Aliaksandr Lukashenka is not the legitimate leader of the country and will be brought to justice by the future legitimate authorities of the Republic of Belarus.

By authorizing the use of weapons and special equipment against demonstrators, Aliaksandr Lukashenka is personally responsible for the tragedy.

The BNR Rada strongly condemns the falsification of the election results and the violence against peaceful demonstrators who came out to protest against violations of the election law and against the usurpation of power.

By all indications, Aliaksandr Lukashenka has lost the election and cannot be considered the legitimate President of the Republic of Belarus.

The BNR Rada calls for the immediate release of all political prisoners and for new fair presidential elections to be held according to generally accepted democratic standards and without the participation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.

The BNR Rada expresses its solidarity with the peaceful protests in Belarus and calls on Belarusians abroad to actively protest in order to bring information about the situation in Belarus to foreign governments.

The BNR Rada calls on the international community to exert maximum pressure on the Lukashenka regime to end terror against Belarusians and hold new, free elections.