Vitaly Shishov Wiki – Vitaly Shishov Biography
Vitaly Shishov was a Belarusian activist. He was the head of the Belarusian House in Ukraine, an organization that helps people escape repression in Belarus following the Belarusian protests of 2020-2021. At the age of 26, Vitaly disappeared from his home in Kiev and was found dead, hanging from a tree in a park near where he lived.
Following the re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko in August 2020, who has been President of Belarus since 1994, Vitaly decided to leave Belarus.
Vitaly Shishov Age
Vitaly Shishov was 26 years old.
Vitaly Shishov Cause of Death
A Belarusian anti-government activist was found dead in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Tuesday in what police described as a murder or suicide, shedding new light on the risks faced by opponents of Belarusian ruler Aleksandr G. Lukashenko. even outside of yours. country.
The activist, Vitaly Shishov, 26, disappeared on Monday after a morning run, said his colleagues, who accused Belarusian authorities of killing him. Kiev police said they had found Mr. Shishov hanged in a park near his home and were investigating the possibility that the death was a “murder disguised as suicide”.
“The full picture of the events will be confirmed after the questioning of witnesses, the analysis of the video recordings” and other steps in the investigation, police said.
Mr. Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of Belarus, who has been in power since 1994, has long cracked down on dissent in his country and jailed thousands after large-scale protests by his government last year . Now, the events of recent weeks suggest that he too is stepping up his campaign against the growing number of Belarusian exiles abroad.
In May, Mr. Lukashenko forced the landing of a passenger plane with an exiled Belarusian activist on board and arrested him. On Sunday, a Belarusian Olympic sprinter sought protection at a Tokyo airport as her nation tried to force her home after the Summer Games. She said she feared for her safety after criticizing her coaches and the country’s national Olympic committee.
Mr. Shishov was the director of the Belarusian House in Ukraine, an organization that helped people trying to escape repression in Belarus after anti-government protests last summer and fall. While the circumstances surrounding Mr. Shishov’s death remained murky, critics of Mr. Lukashenko quickly pointed the finger at his authoritarian regime.
“It is worrying that those fleeing Belarus still cannot be sure,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a leader of Belarus’ pro-democracy opposition who fled the country last year after claiming victory in the presidential election, said on Twitter. Shishov disappeared Monday after jogging at 9 a.m. near his home in Kiev, colleagues from Belarusian House said in a statement. Since he fled to Ukraine last fall, the statement said, he had organized aid for other exiles, organized protests against Lukashenko and asked the Ukrainian authorities to support the Belarusian diaspora.
“The death takes place amid an unacceptable Belarusian crackdown on civil society,” the US Embassy in Kiev said on Twitter. “We await a full and thorough investigation by the Ukrainian authorities to establish its causes and circumstances.” Last week, according to his Facebook posts, Shishov helped organize a rally in Kiev to mark the 31st anniversary of Belarus’ independence from the Soviet Union.
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His colleagues said he believed he was being followed and that supporters in Belarus had warned him of possible threats to his life. He jokingly replied that if something happened to him, he could help his organization get the care he so badly needed.
“Vitaly met these warnings with stoicism and humor,” the organization said. “There is no doubt that this was an operation organized by spies to liquidate a Belarusian who was really a danger to the regime.”
Ukraine’s national police chief, Ihor Klymenko, said that Mr. Shishov did not notify the authorities that he was being followed. Mr. Klymenko told reporters that Mr. Shishov had been found dead with minor injuries to his nose, left knee and chest.
“Experts said that this is all characteristic of a one-off fall,” Klymenko said, according to the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. Shishov, from the Belarusian Gomel region near the Ukraine-Russia border, arrived in Kiev after taking part in anti-government demonstrations, his colleagues said. Last year’s protests erupted after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in a presidential election that was widely viewed as fraudulent.
For many exiles, Ukraine, which has a visa-waiver policy for Belarusians, is a transit point on the way to European Union countries such as Poland and Lithuania. But Mr. Shishov decided to stay and became part of the growing community of Belarusian activists in Kiev.
Lukashenko said last month that his security services were organizing a “cleaning operation” against “bandits and foreign agents” backed by the West who were trying to overthrow him. As a result, hostels, hotels and friend-free rooms in Ukraine were filled with Belarusians fleeing possible arrest, Talstaya said. Even abroad, however, Belarusians are not completely safe.
“Hiding is impossible and pointless,” Talstaya said. “No one can live in permanent fear.”