2023-12-13 14:22:43
In the summer of 2023, the journalists of “Ranka” from Svetlogorsk celebrated the publication’s 30th anniversary. Clouds were already hanging over the editorial staff, but none of them thought that in August they would become an “extremist formation”, and in December they would be subject to criminal prosecution.
The publication mainly wrote about scary topics. Former editor of “Ranku” Andrei Lipsky says that “politics was never the focus.” In 2020, Ranak covered both protest and pro-government rallies. “They wrote neutrally, did not give any comments or evaluations,” Lipsky recalls.
Andrei Lipsky
On June 7, 2023, a tragedy occurred at the Svetlagor Pulp and Cardboard Plant – three workers died after an explosion at the factory. “Ranak” was the first to write about the accident and provided a photo. The photos showed how a poisonous liquid – black lye – was leaking from the plant.
Two days later, the police came after nine employees of the publication. The website was blocked, social networks recognized it as “extremist material”. Later, the entire Ranak became an “extremist formation”. In December, journalists of the publication came under criminal prosecution.
Opening with the help of the city executive committee
Andrei Lipsky came to work at Ranak in 1995. He worked there for 28 years. At first “Ranak” was cable television, then a newspaper was added. One of the founders, in addition to private individuals, was the city executive committee. But later the legislation changed, and the executive committee left the founders.
One of the numbers of the newspaper
The work of television began with the fact that the company “entangled” multi-story buildings in Svetlagorsk with its cables and started movies – action movies and comedies – from the VCR. Then they started creating their news.
“Legend says that the first edition of the news was dedicated to March 8 and consisted of the wishes of men to their women,” recalls the former editor.
“Ranak” was developing. Thematic programs, large interviews with famous people and local authorities appeared on the channel. Work on creating a newspaper has begun. After all, at that time there was only one publication in the district – the state-owned “Ogni Komunizma” (now “Svetlagorsk News”).
“We didn’t have to talk about the alternative then. Both state and non-state publications worked in practically equal conditions. “Morning” quickly gained popularity among viewers and listeners. After all, we “went to the people”, and after critical stories, everything was quickly corrected,” Lipsky recalls.
In a city with a population of 63,000, the circulation of the publication in the best “zero” years was 15,000 copies. About 85,000 people lived in the district. “What this means is that, according to our calculations, almost half of the families in the district read us,” Lipski notes.
Constructive relations until 2020
According to the former editor of “Ranku”, the publication was fundamentally apolitical. However, incidents still happened. In 2008, the journalist “Ranka” wrote about the “political” court in Svetlagorsk, which immediately had consequences.
“The KGB “hit me” hard, and we decided, let’s say, to be more careful,” says Andrei Lipski.
The interlocutor says that over time, the popularity of the paper version of the publication began to decline – people rushed to read the news on the Internet. In 2019, the newspaper “Ranak-plus” ceased to exist. Television, website, social networks remained. And the real estate of the enterprise, which was rented out. They were financed by advertising and other services.
In 2019, the founder and director of “Ranku” Igor Kashlikov sold cable networks to the company “Velsom” (now A1. — RS). In 2021, the then editor of “Ranka” Andrey Lipsky was approached with a search and claims from the Department of Financial Investigations of the KPC. Moreover, the complaints were against the director, Kashlikov. At that time, he was no longer in the country.
“He was accused of not paying taxes from the deal when he sold the cable networks. I just don’t believe it. Kashlikov was a very pragmatic, cautious person. Before buying or selling something, he will consult with many people, assess the risks and will never go on an adventure. Another thing is that in our country they like to change the legislation and you can blame them “backdated,” the journalist thinks.
Andrey Lipsky with the team of the “Ranak” project “Smart Found”
When protests started in Svetlogorsk, as well as in other cities, the publication wrote about them.
“Until 2020, we had constructive relations with the executive committee. We went to their meetings, had contacts with officials, the police, and the prosecutor’s office. Once a week, together with my colleagues from “Svetlagorskyi novostiov”, I visited the deputy chairman of the district executive committee in ideology. She told us the “agenda” – what we should write about, what we should pay attention to,” Lipsky recalls.
But after the fall of 2020, the officials became “offended” and stopped responding to the publication’s inquiries. Andrei Lipski recalls that the officials either did not pick up the phone or answered: “Don’t call me again.” The journalist believes that this happened on the personal orders of the then chairman of the executive committee Dmitriy Aleynikov. He had good personal contacts with many people from the district and city management.
“Aleynikov always wanted to “sweep” Ranak under his control or make us write only what he wants. As there was no such thing, he had a tooth on us,” the journalist believes.
Officials offered “Ranka” written requests as a form of work. But that didn’t work either – journalists received either unsubscribes or “football” when they were sent from one instance to another.
Lipsky mentions how in 2020 he called the press service of the Security Service of the Gomel Executive Committee and was calmly given statistics about those detained in Svetlagorsk during protests. In 2022, the same press service gave him a completely different answer:
“We, “Ranka”, will not give you any information, because you will remember the year 2020 and what position you took then. Sit down and think,” the former editor quotes.
Explosion at the factory
On June 7, an accident occurred at the Svetlagor Pulp and Cardboard Plant, the residents of the city heard an explosion. People started writing to the editorial office, one of the journalists was sent to the scene of the incident. She took a picture of how “some liquid” was leaking from the plant. Later it was determined that it is a dangerous black lye.
“The journalist was in the hallway and asked if it was possible to enter the territory, to which she received the answer: “You can only call the police.” We described what we saw, heard from eyewitnesses and our sources. That “fast” flew, rescuers, that people died. We released the news a few minutes before the official notification of the Ministry of Emergency Situations,” says Andrei Lipski.
In October 2023, referring to the court’s decision, the non-state media reported that the Svetlagor CCC was fined 3.34 million rubles for violating environmental protection legislation. The authorities immediately refuted this information, stating that there was no violation, and the fine was for untimely submission of documents.
“No one would give such a huge fine for not submitting documents on time. I believe that the fine was precisely for the poison that leaked from the plant during the accident,” says Lipsky.
Andrei Lipsky with a colleague
The then director of “Ranka” was summoned to the executive committee a day after the incident at the plant. According to Andrei Lipsky, the conversation was very short.
“They asked a simple question: “Are you with us or against us?” She (director. — RS) had the “impertinence” to make a joke, or simply burst out at her, and she said: “We are ahead of you,” the journalist recalls.
On June 9, the police came to collect the employees of “Ranka”. All of them were accused of subscribing to “extremist materials”.
“Odnaklyasniki” had a group dedicated to the struggle against the Chinese plant in Svetlagorsk. I signed up for it eight years ago and even forgot about it. Because over time it stopped being popular, nobody wrote anything there. That group had 14,000 signatories. But they came precisely for those who worked at “Ranka”, – explains Lipsky.
The employees of the publication ended up in detention, then there was a trial. Some received “days” – from 3 to 7, others – fines. Andrei Lipsky was sentenced to 7 days of arrest.
New arrest and escape from the country
After leaving the detention center, Andrei Lipski saw that the “Ranku” website was blocked. The Ministry of Information cited a link to the “extremist” website “Tribune” in one of the archived materials as the reason for the blocking.
“Journalists constantly cleaned our website, looked for “extremism” there, and deleted it. But the list of “extremist materials” is growing at a gigantic pace every day! There are thousands of titles, how to track everything?”, says Lipsky.
Andrey Lipsky with Alexandra Gerasimenya
After social networks were recognized as “extremist” and the site was blocked, “Ranka” journalists had to resign from their jobs. Lipsky left on July 14, got a job in a store. He says that he is “lucky”, because who would want to hire “extremists” in a small town. On August 2, they came for the journalist again. This time – GUBAZIK and riot police.
“The reason given was that someone insulted an employee of the SC on the Internet and threatened him with death. But what am I doing here? The police said it could have come from my profile. Some delirium. They took two phones, promised to “figure it out,” Lipsky recalls. When he was brought to the department, his former colleagues from “Ranka” were already there.
“The questioning concerned the administration of the social networks “Ranku”. I explained that I was not an administrator, but a moderator. And it was a mandatory duty for both me and my colleagues, once a month. There were no questions about “threats to kill an employee of the SC” there, says Lipsky.
As a result, he was again in prison for subscribing to “extremist resources”. After the night in the detention center, there was a trial at which Andrei Lipski received a fine. The next day he packed his things and left Belarus.
In December, the police came again to the former journalists of “Ranka”. They were detained as part of a criminal case initiated under the article “facilitating extremist activities” (Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code). The journalists were in detention, later they were released with a bond not to leave and to “keep silent”. The police tried to get into Lipski’s apartment, asked his mother for the keys to the apartment and threatened to break down the door themselves.
“What happened next, I don’t know. Maybe they broke into my apartment. Now I’m not too worried about it, to be honest,” says the former editor.
“I think that the pictures of the black lye that flowed out of the factory were a blow to the breath of the local government. Dmitri Oleinikov, the head of the executive committee at the time, as I said, had a crush on us. In 2022, he was sent for promotion to Gomel. He became the deputy chairman of the regional executive committee for ideology, that is, the media curator. Well, that’s how he “controlled” the fate of “Ranka”. I think that not only our material about the plant led to the destruction of the publication. There were various factors that influenced such a development of events,” says Lipsky.
Now he asked for political asylum in one of the European countries. Andrei Lipski’s colleagues have the status of suspects in a criminal case.
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