The Belarusian Interior Ministry has proposed stripping Belarusians of their citizenship who “fled the country and work in the interests of Western countries”

The head of the department of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption ( GUBOPiK ) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus Vyacheslav Orlovsky proposed to deprive Belarusians who left the country and work for Western countries of citizenship. He stated this to the publication "SB. Belarus Segodnya".

People who fled our country, hate it and today work in the interests of Western countries should not have the right to call themselves Belarusians... As a result, they will not be able to come to Belarus freely, they will not be able to participate in electoral processes, the socio-political life of the state.

The Constitution of Belarus directly prohibits depriving Belarusians of citizenship. Article 10 of the Constitution states : "No one may be deprived of citizenship of the Republic of Belarus or the right to change citizenship."

In June, a law came into force in Belarus that allows authorities to strip Belarusian citizenship from people found guilty of extremist, terrorist crimes or calls for actions that harm national security. The law applies to people who have acquired Belarusian citizenship. It prohibits stripping citizenship from those who became citizens of Belarus by birth.

• On October 13, the GUBOPiK Telegram channel, which is considered an unofficial GUBOPiK channel, reported without citing sources that subscribers to more than 100 Telegram channels declared “extremist” would face up to seven years in prison. A few days later, GUBOPiK representative Vyacheslav Orlovsky said that subscribing to banned Telegram channels “is not punishable yet.”
• Amid news of the persecution of subscribers to Telegram channels declared “extremist,” the number of subscribers to the largest Belarusian opposition channel Nexta Live has fallen from 989 to 947 thousand people.