The KGB of Belarus has found a way to blackmail people because of their Facebook pages

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What kind of lists appeared in Belarus and why IT people got there

In recent weeks, IT companies that are part of the Hi-Tech Park ( an IT cluster with special preferential conditions; the state has a great influence on it ) receive lists of their employees who allegedly donated to the BY_help and BYSOL funds. Both funds are recognized as "extremist formations" - which means that a person who sends money to such an organization can be imprisoned for five years. It turns out that many IT people are in danger: according to a dev.by source, there are hundreds of people on the list from just one company.

According to Nasha Niva, citing a source in the HTP, its head Vsevolod Yanchevsky "came up with a tricky move." He allegedly “agreed with the KGB” that they would not put those who donated to the funds behind bars: the IT sector has already experienced many upheavals over the past two years, having lost leading personnel and companies. And if thousands of people realize that the threat of a real term hangs over them, there will be a massive wave of emigration. Instead of criminal prosecution, according to Nasha Niva, the security forces are forcing the employees of the IT company who are on the list to transfer the amount of their donation to funds to the accounts specified by the state - but already in a tenfold amount. What will happen to those who refuse to pay is still unknown.

Another part of the employees who are on the lists are invited to talk to the KGB. “We strongly recommend that those who are called in for a “conversation” leave the country. No one knows how it will end specifically for you,” wrote Andrey Strizhak, head of the BYSOL Foundation, on his Telegram channel. — Tens of thousands of people donated to us, but they decided to walk in the HTP. Because IT people have money.”

How the payments of IT specialists from the list were tracked

Strizhak rules out the leak of information about people who donated money from the fund’s databases and says that people who sent money from the cards of Belarusian banks could be on the KGB lists. Transfers received from foreign cards could not be controlled by the Belarusian authorities.

The Nasha Niva publication found out that Belarusian banks received a corresponding request from the KGB and provided intelligence services with information about payments from Belarusian cards to Facebook starting from August 2020. And the BYSOL and BY_help funds raised money on this site.

At the same time, neither banks nor the KGB can see what exactly the money sent to Facebook went to. The company has many paid services: games, applications, products in the Facebook Marketplace. But it turned out that there is a section in the social network user profile that allows you to see all payments in the account. According to Nasha Niva, this is why IT people were summoned to the KGB: they are asked to open and show their Facebook account, to be more precise, the Facebook Pay tab.

This section stores data about all user payments and it is impossible to delete them from there - there is no such option. It turns out that in order to “cover up the traces”, you need to delete the entire account.

What's the problem if you can delete an account

Deleting an account in Belarusian realities is unlikely to save a person who has donated to funds.

The special services will still see the fact of transferring money from a Belarusian bank card to Facebook. And since there was a surge in donations to funds in 2020, the security forces may still demand an explanation of what you actually paid for and why you decided to delete your profile.

There are those who already went to the KGB: supposedly everything was “benevolent”

On January 11, dev.by published the stories of two directors of small IT companies who are residents of the HTP, Maria and Yuri ( the names of the interlocutors have been changed ). According to them, they already went to the KGB on December 27 and January 10, respectively. The dev.by edition confirmed their identity, but emphasizes that they cannot verify the motives of their appeals to the editor.

“It became known to me that the KGB has information that I and some employees of the company made donations to the BYSOL and BY_help funds. I was given the contact of a KGB officer, I phoned him, he offered a meeting,” Yury told dev.by. Maria, according to her, turned to lawyers, who confirmed to her that it was possible to free herself from criminal liability.

Both Yuri and Maria said that the conversation at the KGB was without pressure and "friendly". As a result, both directors made a "charitable contribution" to state organizations - the Vesnovsky Boarding School for Disabled Children and the Minsk City Center for Medical Rehabilitation of Children with Psychoneurological Diseases. They chose them themselves: according to dev.by, the KGB offered various “orphanages, hospices, special schools and similar institutions.” What amounts Yuri and Maria transferred, the text does not say.

After a conversation at the KGB, Maria was allegedly issued a decision not to initiate a criminal case against her, but she refused to show this document to journalists, citing a non-disclosure agreement.

Yuri and Maria claim to have persuaded their subordinates to do the same as they did.