Believer DZMITRY KARNEYENKA, Belarusian Orthodox Church (Viciebsk)

Dzmitry Karneyenka – an Orthodox Christian, activist and scholar, a founding member of the Christian Vision group, administers the Christians Against War Telegram channel. In 2021, he was forced to leave Belarus due to the threat of persecution that began back in 2020 for participating in peaceful protests. Between 2020 and 2021, he was subjected to multiple arrests and fines — receiving no fewer than 10 administrative charges. Altogether, he spent 40 days in detention.

In September 2021, officers from GUBOPiK (the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption) raided Karneyenka’s registered apartment in Viciebsk and conducted a search. This was linked to a criminal case opened against a group of Vitebsk-based activists. At the time, Dzmitry was no longer living at that address — within a few days, he managed to leave Belarus.

On 3  July 2024, it became known that a criminal case had been opened against him under Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code (Assisting extremist activity), the reason for which was his interview with the Belsat TV channel, which the Belarusian authorities consider an ‘extremist formation’. Karneyenka gave the interview in the first month of the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine in the capacity of the Christian Vision group member. At that time, he lived in Odesa; in the interview, he spoke about how Odesans coped with the war.

On 1 April 2025, the KGB added “Christian Vision” to the List of organisations, formations, individual entrepreneurs, involved in extremist activity as an “extremist formation” (KGB Decision of 01.04.2025 No. 4/41-26 “On declaring a group of citizens an extremist formation and prohibiting its activities”), and indicated Dzmitry Karniayenka as its participant. On 25 April 2025, new initiatives were added to the official list of “extremist formations” — among them, the initiative “Narodny Deputat”, which focuses on analyzing the effectiveness of regional authorities. Dzmitry Karneyenka was listed as a participant in this initiative.

On 10 April 2025, shortly after the appearance of “Christian Vision” — along with the names of three of its members, including Dzmitry Karneyenka — in the updated list of organizations and individuals “involved in extremist activity” published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, police visited Karneyenka’s father in Vorša. They took a DNA sample from him and questioned him about his son. The following day, security forces visited Dzmitry’s mother-in-law in Viciebsk. He shared details of these visits on his Facebook page.