A Belarusian activist fled persecution to Poland, but after a six-month online romance she returned home, where she was put on trial. According to BYPOL, a group of former Belarusian security officers, the man she was talking to worked for the security services.
In 2020, Tatsiana Kurylina from Mozyr was one of the administrators of the “97%” protest Telegram chats, where she went by the handle @v_tanke. The name referred to a meme of the time: in online polls before the election, Lukashenko polled at only about 3%, while the other 97% voted against him. Kurylina was living in Moscow back then and working as an accountant. Once Belarusian security forces identified who was behind her account, she began receiving summonses from law enforcement in Moscow. Kurylina left first for Ukraine, then for Poland, where she found a job at a Biedronka supermarket.
An online romance
According to BYPOL, Kurylina fell into depression in exile. Around that time, a man started writing to her. They corresponded for about six months, the relationship turned romantic, and Kurylina told him everything about her activism. He introduced himself as a former security officer, said he had connections, and promised to sort out her problems back home. Tatsiana told her sister, who also lives in Poland, about her plans to return. Her sister tried to talk her out of it, but Kurylina deleted all her accounts and disappeared (Zerkalo). BYPOL is convinced it was a security service operation. This version has not been officially confirmed.
The return
In January 2022, Kurylina asked her fellow admins to remove her administrator rights, citing illness and a broken phone, and went back to Belarus. On February 22, she appeared in a propaganda segment on the state TV channel STV. She said that taking part in protest chats was pointless and claimed the chats were controlled by Polish intelligence (Zerkalo). The authorities presented her return as a success of the “Road Home” program, which promised emigrants they could come back without consequences.
Arrest and sentence
Kurylina was detained on August 22, 2022 (Belarus Women). The Gomel Regional Court heard the case behind closed doors and on March 30, 2023, found her guilty under 12 articles of the Criminal Code, including calls for sanctions, inciting hatred, and slandering Lukashenko. According to the prosecution, from August 2020 to February 2022 she used the chats to call for protests and violence against officials and security forces and published their personal data. She was sentenced to 4.5 years in a general-regime penal colony, fined 100 base units (3,700 rubles), and ordered to pay 23,500 rubles in moral damages to the victims (Current Time). The authorities also added her to the Interior Ministry’s “extremist” list and the KGB’s “terrorist” list.
On December 13, 2025, Kurylina was among 123 political prisoners pardoned by Lukashenko after talks with US Special Envoy John Coale (Novaya Gazeta Europe).