Former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev, заочно condemned and wanted by Ukraine, visited Belarus

Oleg Tsarev on board Belavia Photo: Tsarev's social networks

Former Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleg Tsarev, who defected to Russia and is wanted by Ukraine, visited Belarus, Pozirk noted.

Judging by Tsarev's posts and photos on social media, he departed by train from Moscow to Minsk on the evening of December 20 and flew back on a Belavia flight on the evening of December 23. He might have stayed at the five-star President Hotel: the politician, twice заочно condemned by a Ukrainian court, took a photo with a waitress from this hotel.

"I felt an aesthetic shock. I'm traveling in a Soviet-era coupe where everything is new and everything works. Four buttons for adjusting light brightness. Ventilation works, the switch lever is not broken and actually regulates airflow — I checked. Radio, power outlet, toilet occupancy indicator," Tsarev described his impressions of the train journey.

"By the way, in Belarus (in the Russian-language original "в Белоруссии". — "Pozirk".) YouTube loads normally, calls are received via WhatsApp and Telegram. Foreign media websites load directly. Against the backdrop of restrictions worldwide, it's simply an oasis of democracy," shared the collaborator, who, according to Ukrainian media, primarily resides in Russian-annexed Crimea. Russian authorities restrict or block access to certain messengers as part of their fight against dissent and Ukrainian drones. However, Tsarev did not mention that Belarusian authorities also block access to content undesirable to them.

Tsarev did not say whether he held any meetings in Belarus.

In the spring of 2022, he was заочно sentenced by a Ukrainian court to 12 years in prison on charges of public calls to change Ukraine's state border and violently alter its constitutional order.

In the autumn of 2024, the former Verkhovna Rada deputy was заочно sentenced to 8 years in prison on charges of financing Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine. His property, worth over 460 million hryvnias (about 11 million dollars), was confiscated in favor of the state. However, the main part of the property is located in Russian-annexed Crimea (a sanatorium and a museum, valued at 456 million hryvnias) and de facto cannot yet be confiscated.

In October 2023, an assassination attempt was made on Tsarev in Crimea.

• 1
• 0
• 0
• 3
• 0
• 0
• 4
• 0