Source: www.forum18.org
Date: October 31, 2025
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Felix Corley, Forum 18
KGB officers offered to free jailed Catholic priest Fr Henryk Okolotovich
and allow him to return to his parish if he agreed to invite the Vatican
nuncio to visit and covertly plant a flash drive on him. He refused,
telling the KGB that "what you demand of me, is a crime, and I cannot
betray God, any more than I can carry out this action". KGB officers said
they would visit him again in prison "many more times, so that perhaps you
will change your mind", released political prisoner Andrey Krylov told the
Christian Vision group.
The KGB's attempted recruitment of Fr Okolotovich took place at the KGB
Investigation Prison in the capital Minsk, either following his November
2023 arrest or in summer 2025 (see below).
Forum 18 was unable to reach KGB officers in Minsk. The duty officer at the
KGB for Mogilev Region – the region where Fr Okolotovich is being held -
put the phone down when Forum 18 called on 30 October (see below).
The official who answered the phone in Minsk on 31 October of Deputy
Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Sergei Gerasimenya said
Gerasimenya was not available. "I am not authorised to answer and
questions," he told Forum 18 and put the phone down.
Officers of the KGB secret police (which has retained the same name since
the Soviet period) appear to be part of a programme to enforce the regime's
policies, including in the area of religion. "The KGB aims to identify and
crush any threats to the regime," one individual who closely follows
religious affairs told Forum 18. "It has no separate religious policy. It
treats parishes and religious communities the same as it does businesses or
any other organisation" (see below).
KGB officers seek to pressure religious leaders to sign commitments to
cooperate and force them to attend regular meetings where the KGB assigns
tasks to them. KGB officers particularly target religious leaders who have
studied or have connections in Ukraine or Poland, or who have contacts with
individuals believed to be part of the foreign-based opposition to the
regime. It has also sent spies to Belarusian religious communities abroad
(see below).
KGB officers also try to recruit informers in religious communities who
will report on developments the KGB is interested in. Such informers
covertly record sermons or talks in meetings for worship and inform the KGB
if they believe the recordings contain comments the KGB might be concerned
about. The KGB then summons such religious leaders to ask why they have
made specific comments (see below).
The KGB can pressure religious leaders to have community members perceived
as oppositionists leave the religious community, or at least remove such
individuals from any leading role in the community. Officers summoned one
Catholic priest to demand that he remove an individual from a role in the
parish. The priest did not wish to do so, but felt obliged to request the
individual to withdraw from the role voluntarily. "The priest pointed to
the situation we were living in when making the request," the individual
told Forum 18. The individual acceded to the priest's request (see below).
Religious leaders do not like talking about any links or contacts with the
KGB secret police. Some are ashamed, fearing a loss of prestige if their
links become public. Others fear retribution from the regime on themselves
or their relatives.
Religious leaders and others Forum 18 spoke to in October asked not to be
identified because of the sensitivity of the subject and fear of regime
reprisals on them or others.
Increased regime control from 2020
The regime's control over society – including religious communities –
increased after its violent suppression of protests
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
presidential elections in 2020.
The regime's control of religious communities tightened still further
following the entry into force in July 2024 of a new Religion Law. Exercise
of freedom of religion or belief without state permission remains banned.
All registered religious communities were required to submit
re-registration applications
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Officials have refused to give detailed figures for how many religious
communities have and have not received the compulsory re-registration.
In summer 2025, officials again questioned many church leaders about what
they think about Russian President Vladimir Putin, those close to them told
Forum 18. The church leaders considered such questions strange. Officials
had asked similar questions in earlier years, others noted.
KGB "aims to identify and crush any threats to the regime"
"The KGB aims to identify and crush any threats to the regime," one
individual who closely follows religious affairs told Forum 18. "It has no
separate religious policy. It treats parishes and religious communities the
same as it does businesses or any other organisation."
The individual noted that on the local level, the Ideology Departments of
local Executive Committees play a leading role in enacting the regime's
religious policy. However, the KGB secret police leads on any development
that the regime considers threatens or could threaten its rule.
Even if the KGB does not devise the regime's policy to control religious
communities, it plays a role in enacting this policy. "The regime tries to
incriminate the Church and its priests as spies," a religious leader now
out of Belarus told Forum 18. "The KGB has one goal: to find enemies. The
regime needs external enemies."
The religious leader said instructions on religious policy come from the
Presidential Administration. "The KGB then carries out the instructions.
The Plenipotentiary [for Religious and Ethnic Affairs] is not important."
The regime's control over society – including religious communities –
increased after its violent suppression of protests over the falsified
presidential elections in 2020, several individuals told Forum 18.
KGB tried to use jailed priest to entrap nuncio?
From 2005, Catholic priest Fr Henryk (Gennady) Okolotovich (born 8 April
1960) was the parish priest of St Joseph's Church in Volozhin in Minsk
Region, 75 kms northwest of the city of Minsk.
On 16 November 2023, officials arrested Fr Okolotovich and detained him in
the KGB secret police Investigation Prison in Minsk. During the
investigation, Fr Okolotovich faced pressure to implicate the country's
Catholic bishops (https://www.forum18.org/archi
refused to do so.
On 30 December 2024, Minsk Regional Court handed him an 11-year jail term
on treason charges at a closed trial. Among other things he was accused of
sending abroad information about military aircraft at a base near his
parish. He was also ordered to pay a massive financial penalty. Fr
Okolotovich vigorously rejected the accusations.
On 1 April 2025, a week before his 65th birthday, the Supreme Court in
Minsk rejected Fr Okolotovich's appeal
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
closed. He was then sent to a Labour Camp in Bobruisk to begin serving his
sentence.
In summer 2025, the KGB secret police came to Fr Okolotovich in prison in
Bobruisk, "most likely to force him to slander parishioners or other clergy
of the Catholic Church", released political prisoner Andrey Krylov told the
Christian Vision group on 13 September
(https://belarus2020.churchby.
in Bobruisk with Fr Okolotovich, as well as another jailed Catholic priest
Fr Andrei Yukhnevich.
The prison authorities transferred Fr Okolotovich for several weeks to the
KGB pre-trial detention centre in Minsk. There, they gave him some papers
to read, and apparently made him sign them. "There was some paper missing,
and they said it couldn't be delivered by mail or special courier because
it was a highly sensitive, classified document, so they took him there
themselves," Krylov recalled.
The prison authorities then returned Fr Okolotovich to Correctional Colony
No. 2 in Bobruisk.
"Then they summoned him and said the KGB would come and talk to him,"
Krylov recounted about Fr Okolotovich. "They told him he owed a million
Euros, and you understand that you have as much to do with these planes and
this million Euros as I do with ballet. That's not true, you know that, but
you sign these documents. And then we'll release you, Okolotovich, and
you'll be free. We won't do anything else to you."
Fr Okolotovich told Krylov that the KGB was requesting that, after being
freed and sent back to serve in his parish in Volozhin, he invite the
Vatican nuncio to visit the parish. "And secretly, as if by accident, hand
over a flash drive to the Vatican ambassador. That is, to create
incriminating evidence against the ambassador. But Okolotovich refused."
Fr Okolotovich said he told the KGB that "what you demand of me, is a
crime, and I cannot betray God, any more than I can carry out this action".
KGB officers said they would visit him again in prison "many more times, so
that perhaps you will change your mind", Krylov recalled.
It remains unclear whether the KGB's attempt to pressure Fr Okolotovich to
take part in a plot to compromise the Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus came
during his detention in the KGB Investigation Prison in Minsk following his
November 2023 arrest or in summer 2025 after he had been transferred back
to that prison from the camp in Bobruisk.
From 2020 to 2024, the Apostolic Nuncio to Belarus was Archbishop Ante
Jozić. Pope Francis appointed Ignazio Ceffalia as the new Apostolic Nuncio
on 25 March 2025. He was consecrated an Archbishop on 22 May. He arrived in
Belarus in late June.
It remains unclear how the KGB might have intended to compromise the
Apostolic Nuncio. As an accredited diplomat, he and his staff have
diplomatic status and thus immunity.
The duty officer at the KGB for Mogilev Region put the phone down when
Forum 18 called on 30 October.
The prison address for Fr Okolotovich and Fr Yukhnevich:
213800, Mogilevskaya oblast
g. Bobruisk
ul. Sikorskogo d. 1
Ispravitelnaya koloniya No. 2 upravleniya DIN Ministerstva vnutrennikh del
po Mogilevskoi oblasti
KGB spies in religious communities
Officials often openly visit religious communities to inspect them and
listen to what is said in meetings for worship, numerous individuals told
Forum 18. The regime has long used informers in religious communities
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
KGB officers also try to recruit informers in religious communities who
will report on developments the KGB is interested in and also monitor
religious leaders' social media. Such informers covertly record sermons or
talks in meetings for worship and inform the KGB if they believe the
recordings contain comments the KGB might be concerned about. The KGB then
summons such religious leaders to ask why they have made specific comments
and threaten them with punishment.
"Some community members signed documents to say they would report on me,"
one religious leader told Forum 18. "Some signed but didn't tell me. Others
told me, but said they had done so under pressure. When people come into
the KGB office, they have no alternative but to sign. So many signed."
When the KGB summoned the religious leader, officers "said they know all
about me", the religious leader added. Officers gave facts that could only
have come from informers.
KGB tries to remove perceived oppositionists from roles in religious
communities
Under the repressive new Religion Law, that came into force on 5 July 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
on either the "List of organisations and individuals involved in terrorist
activities" or the "List of citizens of the Republic of Belarus, foreign
citizens or stateless persons involved in extremist activities"
(https://humanconstanta.org/en
are banned from being leaders or founders of registered religious
organisations.
Leaders of religious communities whose ordinary members include those the
regime perceives as oppositionists are in a delicate situation. The KGB can
summon the religious leaders and try to extract information about the
individuals, or can ask the religious leader to have the individuals leave
the religious community, or at least remove such individuals from any
leading role in the community.
The KGB summoned one Catholic priest several years ago to demand that he
remove a perceived oppositionist from a role in the parish. The priest did
not wish to do so, but felt obliged to request the individual to withdraw
from the role voluntarily. "The priest pointed to the situation we were
living in when making the request," the individual told Forum 18. The
individual acceded to the priest's request.
KGB suspects leaders who studied in Ukraine, Poland
The regime has poor relations with several of its neighbours, including
Poland to the west and Ukraine to the south. The regime's relations with
Russia to the east are close.
The KGB secret police is particularly concerned about religious leaders who
studied in seminaries and colleges in Ukraine or Poland and have returned
to serve in religious communities in Belarus. "Priests who studied in
Ukraine or Poland face more intense scrutiny," an individual familiar with
religious communities told Forum 18.
"Protestants and Greek Catholics who studied in Ukraine are under
suspicion," one foreign-based Belarusian told Forum 18.
Most Greek Catholic priests have gained their religious education in
seminaries in western Ukraine, the heartland of the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic Church.
Some Protestant pastors studied in Protestant colleges in Ukraine after
independence in 1991. Some Orthodox clergy also studied in Ukraine.
One religious leader who had studied earlier in Ukraine was detained
several years ago for an administrative violation. In return for dropping
the case, the KGB forced the individual to sign a co-operation agreement.
Many Roman Catholic priests earlier studied in universities or Catholic
seminaries in neighbouring Poland. The regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko has
pressured the Roman Catholic Church to reduce the number of priests from
Poland serving in parishes in the country and to train more clergy at the
seminary in Grodno.
It appears the KGB secret police does not have significant concerns about
religious leaders – particularly of the Orthodox Church – who have
studied in Russia.
KGB suspects leaders with contacts with perceived oppositionists abroad
The KGB secret police is particularly concerned about religious leaders who
have travelled abroad, particularly to Western European countries, and who
they believe have had contact there with individuals or organisations
(political, cultural or religious) that the regime considers part of the
opposition.
Among such foreign-based religious organisations is the Belarusian parish
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. Parish
priests Fr Georgi Roi (who faces a criminal case in Belarus and was added
at Belarus' request to Russia's wanted list in 2024
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Kukhta left Belarus in April 2023. The two then left the jurisdiction of
the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ecumenical Patriarchate accepted them. They
established the parish in Vilnius
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
service (for Easter Sunday) in a Lutheran church in April 2023. The parish
then found its own premises in the city centre.
On 20 October 2023, Baranovichi District and City Court declared the
Telegram channel of the Belarusian Orthodox parish in the Lithuanian
capital Vilnius (https://t.me/ortovilnya) "extremist". Exactly one week
later, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications blocked
access in Belarus to the Telegram channel on the basis of the Information
Ministry's decision, the Inspectorate's website notes.
KGB spies on religious communities abroad
The KGB secret police also has spies in religious communities serving
Belarusians outside the country, foreign-based religious leaders told Forum
18. Their task appears to be to report back on individuals perceived to be
opponents of the regime – whether the leaders or members of the
communities – and any opposition statements or plans.
"Extremist" groups, media, websites
Human rights groups – such as Viasna (Spring) (https://spring96.org/) and
Human Constanta (https://humanconstanta.org/) – and independent media
outlets are among the many groups courts, the Interior Ministry or the KGB
secret police have declared "extremist".
Anyone who shares, copies or likes material from a site deemed "extremist"
risks punishment under Administrative Code Article 19.11 ("Distribution,
production, storage and transportation of information products containing
calls for extremist activities, or promoting such activities").
Anyone joining or providing information or an interview to such a site
risks punishment under Criminal Code Article 361-1 ("Creation of or
participation in an extremist organisation") or Criminal Code Article 361-4
("Supporting extremist activity").
The regime has banned as "extremist" and blocked many news websites and
social media channels related to religion
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Human rights defenders from various Christian Churches across Belarus
formed the group Christian Vision (https://belarus2020.churchby.
September 2020, amid protests against the falsified presidential elections,
to document violations of freedom of religion or belief and other human
rights. (The group is currently registered, under the name Christian Vision
for Belarus, in Lithuania.)
On 18 August 2023, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications
blocked access in Belarus to Christian Vision's website on the basis of the
Information Ministry's decision, the Inspectorate's website notes.
Between August 2023 and March 2024, several courts declared Christian
Vision's Telegram channel (twice), Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte
and Odnoklassniki pages, and logo "extremist"
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
On 1 April 2025, the KGB secret police ruled that Christian Vision, its
website and social media channels are "extremist" and are banned
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
three people linked to the group: Natallia Vasilevich, Natallia Harkovich
and Dzmitry Korneyenko. (All three, who are Orthodox Christians, are
outside Belarus.) The decision came into force on being issued. The
Interior Ministry added the group to its list of "extremist" organisations
on 8 April.
Neither the KGB, nor the Interior Ministry nor the courts has ever informed
Christian Vision of their "extremism" declarations. "We only found out when
the [extremism] lists were updated," Orthodox theologian and human rights
defender Vasilevich, the group's coordinator, told Forum 18 in May
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
On 23 January 2024, Baranovichi District and City Court declared Christians
Against War's Telegram channel "extremist" (https://t.me/shaltnotkill). One
month later, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications blocked
access in Belarus to the Telegram channel on the basis of the Information
Ministry's decision, the Inspectorate's website notes.
In July 2024, the Information Ministry listed independent Catholic news
website Katolik.life (https://katolik.life/) as "extremist". In August
2024, a court in Minsk Region declared Katolik.life's Telegram channel
"extremist" (https://www.forum18.org/archi
month later, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications blocked
access in Belarus to the Telegram channel on the basis of the Information
Ministry's decision, the Inspectorate's website notes.
On 27 August 2025, by decision of Grodno's Lenin District Court, the
Information Ministry added all Katolik.life and Gomel Catholic's social
media pages (including on X, Instagram, Threads, Telegram, VKontakte and
Facebook) to the list of "extremist materials". This also covers any logos,
stickers, or images featuring the Katolik.life branding.
On 15 March 2025, Liozna District Court in Vitebsk Region declared the
Facebook page Prayer for Belarus (https://www.facebook.com/Pray
"extremist". The page – which was last updated in March 2021 - featured
prayer appeals related to various events — especially in the lead-up to
Freedom Day (celebrated by non-regime Belarusians on 25 March). On 20
October, the Inspectorate for Supervision of Telecommunications blocked
access in Belarus to the Facebook page on the basis of the Information
Ministry's decision, the Inspectorate's website notes.
Sweeping bans on internet resources also includes those not entirely
dedicated to religious materials but which include some material. These
include news sites, as well as libraries of online literature. One such
site, which describes itself as a "Belarusian internet library" and
contains a section with online books about religion and religious issues,
is kamunikat.org. Minsk's Central District Court declared it "extremist" on
26 September. (END)
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
For background information, see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom survey
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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