Sports journalists Ivulin, Pisarenka arrested in Minsk

Mr. Ivulin, who plays for FC Krumkačy Min­sk in Belarus’ sec­ond divi­sion, has a pop­u­lar YouTube chan­nel focus­ing on soc­cer. Mr. Pis­aren­ka edits videos for the chan­nel.

The pair were appre­hend­ed at a rent­ed apart­ment. It was searched for three hours before the jour­nal­ists were tak­en away by plain­clothes­men.

In Novem­ber last year, Mr. Ivulin was arrest­ed for alleged­ly tak­ing part in an unsanc­tioned demon­stra­tion. He was released the fol­low­ing day. Weeks lat­er, he was sen­tenced to a fine of 810 rubels.

Mr. Pis­aren­ka left his sports commentator’s job at Belaru­sian State Tele­vi­sion and Radio Com­pa­ny last year in protest against the offi­cial results of the August 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and police bru­tal­i­ty toward post-elec­tion pro­test­ers.

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