Reprisals In Response To Reprisals

• Irina Khalip
• 24.07.2026, 11:24

It's not hard to come up with a symmetrical response—if you really wanted to.

My friend's daughters are studying at YSU. Recently, when they came home for vacation, they immediately ended up at the KGB. Their home was searched. The girls were threatened: they were told that if they didn’t immediately withdraw from the university and enroll, as decent Belarusian women are supposed to, at a local university, they would end up in prison facing substantial sentences for extremism.

Now they have very little time left to decide: to leave for good without the possibility of visiting their relatives in Belarus (even though during the 2020 protests the girls were still in school and, naturally, did not participate in any marches at all), thereby bringing down a storm of trouble on their family in the form of a criminal case, new searches, intimidation of their parents, or even arrest—after all, they are the ones paying for their education, which means they are funding an extremist group, — or hand over their documents, enroll in a Belarusian university, march under red-and-green banners, and do everything possible to “wash away the shame,” since they’ve already participated in extremist activities simply by the fact of studying at YSU. In short, it’s a choice from the “whichever way you look at it, it’s a lose-lose situation” category.

But, as they say, you fight a wedge with a wedge. The problem is that the authorities in Western countries have grown accustomed to responding to Lukashenko’s lawlessness—even on their own territories, let alone the lawlessness within the country—with deep concern expressed in resolutions. Recall what happened after EHU was designated an extremist organization. The European Union condemned the Supreme Court’s decision and issued a statement in which it called the university’s designation as extremist “an unfounded attack on academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the fundamental right to education.” The foreign minister of Lithuania—the country where EHU is actually located— — criticized the decision by the Belarusian authorities and expressed support for the university on social media platform X. Sweden, meanwhile, expressed deep concern and solidarity with the faculty and students.

I spoke with EHU students. They’re operating on the principle that “those who are drowning must save themselves.” In their chat groups, they consult with one another, come up with options, and share tips. They meet with human rights activists and are looking for a way out on their own. Because they have no one else to count on.

Unfortunately, expressing concern has become routine, and no one wants to take any further action. They voiced their concerns, published a statement on the website, upheld their democratic image—and that’s it. But it would be possible to rein in these overzealous “collective farmers” with simple, reciprocal measures. If they label the university in exile as extremist and start intimidating students—the response will be: expel and permanently dismiss—with no possibility of reinstatement—all the offspring of bureaucrats and KGB officials, of whom there are no fewer in European universities than there are ordinary Belarusians. (They, by the way, don’t even try to hide it.) That is the symmetrical response. I have no doubt that the parents of the expelled children would give that Supreme Court a thorough and prolonged dressing-down. Or they might even stage a riot in Drozdy to avenge their little ones.

Similarly, no one reacted to the 2023 “passport” decree. They condemned it, called the decree cynical, and promised to “continue supporting the Belarusian people.” Some countries took great pride in their palliative measures, such as recognizing expired Belarusian passports. But this was merely an expression of deep concern. The authorities in these countries knew full well that the statement was completely empty: an expired passport might be recognized in theory, but you couldn’t use it to get into a bank, the tax office, a plane, a university, or a job. And the response was simple: if Belarusian consulates have ceased to fulfill their primary function—assisting their country’s citizens abroad—then send all Belarusian consular staff packing. Shut down all of Lukashenko’s businesses abroad, which are thriving.

Because the West’s expression of deep concern is, alas, nothing more than an admission of its own indifference and passive complicity in the repression. And coming up with a response would not be difficult. In diplomacy, this is referred to by the elegant term “reprisals.”

Irina Khalip, exclusively for Charter97.org