from Hacker News

PandaDoc employees arrested in Belarus after founders protest against violence

by perch56 on 9/8/20, 8:29 AM with 192 comments

  • by hippich on 9/8/20, 2:39 PM

    A few facts about these events:

    - Based on data collected by from only some polling places, there is a huge discrepancies in results comparing to official ones. Most poling places refused to post results. People, who demanded to post results (as the law requires), were arrested. You can read more about it at belarus2020.org

    - A lot of journalists left state media. Replacements were brought from Russia's state's propaganda media.

    - While police is involved in some cases, the bulk of arrests, beating, torture is done by special forces where most of them wear full head covering at all times. In the few episodes when such head covering is removed during the altercation, these enforces were running away hiding their faces with hands 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zspZj5wPtaQ ; 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj5cV8Dl7jA

    - Often, special forces use plain clothes and act like criminals. The only suggestion that they are law enforcement - they often have a baton and full head covering. They never tell you their names, departments, etc.

    - Last Sunday Belarus saw its first business glass door shattered as a result of protests (protests started on Aug 9th). That door was broken by special forces because some protesters tried to hide from beating there. People donated to the business owner to buy a new door and were standing in the line next day to buy a coffee from that place - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3I8dxAwybE

    - To avoid beating by special forces, some running away protesters had to jump into the river. Water is quite cold. They were saved by the rescue team worked on the river, who brought them to the other bank of it. As a result, the whole rescue team was arrested - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqA3deW_-Yg

    There is a lot more going on, just wanted to share a few things to explain the atmosphere of it.

  • by newbelarus on 9/8/20, 2:17 PM

    Hi Folks,

    We ran the Belarus' post-election survey. Over 10,000+ respondents.

    Here are the results:

    - Результат опроса «День Выборов Президента Беларуси» — https://surveymonkey.com/results/SM-W9PZGD9B7/ - Панель индикаторов «День Выборов Президента Беларуси» — https://www.surveymonkey.com/stories/SM-RKSGN36D/

    Here are the results for pre-election survey:

    - «Кандидаты на пост президента Беларуси» — начать опрос — https://surveymonkey.com/r/IMBELARUS-5 - Результат опроса «Кандидаты на пост президента Беларуси» — https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-VRQR539G7/ - Панель индикаторов «Кандидаты на пост президента Беларуси» — https://www.surveymonkey.com/stories/SM-VMNFBZ3D/

  • by mensetmanusman on 9/8/20, 4:00 PM

    Unfortunately, history tells us that almost all major gains in freedom come, at one point, through violent conflict/sacrifice.

    If one side (an authoritarian oppressor) is not afraid to use violence, and the other is prevented from using any response, the oppressor will win. This is why major changes usually require civil war.

    This is also why authoritarians definitely do not want their population to have access to weapons. (The U.S. couldn’t even control Afghan farmers with guns...)

  • by maerF0x0 on 9/8/20, 4:12 PM

    For me, this serves as a stark reminder to invest in barriers to oppression.

    * General education (ideally, not state mandated)

    * General self defense (fitness, martial arts, firearms training)

    * Technological counter measures - TOR, crypto, crypto currency, and IMO we should be pushing for electronic voting systems (not shitty ones, but truly great ones) *

    *Edit: By great ones, I mean ones that allow us to validate our vote was both counted and correct after the fact. There are crypto voting systems that do not allow anyone (including the government) to know if you voted or what your vote is (identifying you), but still allows tallying and validation.

  • by allendoerfer on 9/8/20, 3:34 PM

    > Several international audits and inspections by EY and other reputable companies over the last years prove that the company adhered to all regulations and laws prevalent in Belarus.

    I don't want to take away from the point of the article, but this made me chuckle.

    Are we talking about the same "reputable" EY that has been auditing Wirecard for years and years while a giant scam reported on by the Financial Times was happening right in front of their eyes? They might not be held accountable financially, but I think we can and should stop calling them reputable.

  • by _fat_santa on 9/8/20, 2:23 PM

    My last gig we hired a team out of Minsk to help us with a project, brought them over to our US headquarters for about a month to help with planning and buildout.

    When coronavirus took hold I got laid off and the team was cut loose. Not sure how they are holding up over there but damn I hope they are alright.

    And fuck Lukashenko, I hope the man chokes on a cheeseburger.

  • by dalbasal on 9/8/20, 3:30 PM

    This is tangential..

    As a European, I feel that we are too disconnected from this affair. Just as with the Ukrainian civil war and Crimean annexation, a big part of this conflict is a conservative, repressive, Russia/Putin sponsored regime at odds with a population that identifies more with European/EU values... especially younger people.

    Russia see the dignity, prosperity and freedom of several nations as trivial relative to their "vital concern" of having a buffer between them and "The West."

    I'm not saying that we can or should escalate recklessly vis-a-vis Russia. I am saying that they are our neighbors too, not just Russia's. We have our interests too, and more importantly our solidarity. The Lukashenko regime is anachronistic, brutal and failed.

    This is not a foreign affair.

    I understand and even sympathize with Putin's concerns on encroachment. He lays them out clearly enough. I will also admit that mistakes have been made, and the the US played its hand too aggressively in the 1990s. I also think that the EU (and NATO, if the US is willing) should negotiate a peace treaty that addresses these. I also genuinely believe this is possible.

    For that to happen though, we need to take a much firmer stance. We need to be as interested in our neighbors as Russia is. The whole premise of the EU is peace and sovereignty. Those values need to be represented here.

    Ukraine was abused because of their desire to join the EU, and we treated it as above our paygrade. Now, Russia is openly propping up Lukashenko. Next year it will be Lithuania, Estonia. Putin might decide to intervene on behalf of Victor Orban. We're in this one way or another.

  • by zerr on 9/8/20, 1:54 PM

    When we see that nations are hostages of their criminal governments - what real mechanisms are there for helping those nations? e.g. what would be the outcome of targeting specifically Lukashenko, Putin, Kim Jong-un along with their inner circles respectively?

  • by openasocket on 9/8/20, 7:40 PM

    I'm sure there's a couple people reading about this and other events in Belarus and wondering why Russia is so involved with Belarus like this. I thought I'd add a little bit on context. Like Ukraine, Belarus serves as a buffer between NATO and Russia, and was once a part of the Soviet Union. But Belarus is especially important to Russia because of Kaliningrad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad . It's a part of Russia that is completely separate from the rest of the country, on the Baltic Sea wedged between Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad is heavily militarized, and in any NATO-Russian conflict Kaliningrad would play a vital role. And the country of Belarus is directly between Kaliningrad and the rest of Russia. Any Russian war plan would hinge on being able to move troops through Belarus. I would expect Russia to pull out all the stops to defend their interests here

    EDIT: sorry, Belarus does not directly connect to Kaliningrad, there is a gap of about 50 miles with Lithuania and Poland on either side. But the general point still stands

  • by atlasunshrugged on 9/8/20, 3:48 PM

    This is a bit off topic but since there are likely some people in this thread familiar with the happenings in Belarus, does anyone know what's happening with Vitali Shkliarov? I know he was arrested a while back and his lawyer has made some public statements but I haven't seen much about him recently

  • by homakov on 9/10/20, 6:34 AM

    Do not have business with any company that pays taxes in Belarus. We must deprive Lukashenko of money. Many IT companies are attracted to Minsk because of the low cost and here we are.

  • by sabujp on 9/9/20, 1:49 AM

  • by trurl123 on 9/9/20, 3:08 AM

    What's happened with hn? I don't want to read about politics here.

  • by Molly555 on 9/8/20, 12:01 PM

    Well, as far as I know, monstrous things are happening in this country right now. What is the cost of a complete disconnection of the Internet throughout the country? I can't even imagine how many millions of dollars it cost the authorities. I also heard that people are afraid to follow the news through the Telegram channels, because it is simply not safe. https://utopia.fans/tools/clash-of-the-titans-telegram-vs-wh...

  • by jdennah on 9/8/20, 2:39 PM

    imprisoned HR, I'd just let that one run its course.

  • by dshpala on 9/8/20, 4:44 PM

    I think that protesters didn't think it through enough. Yes, Lukashenko is an awful guy, but what is the alternative?

    Protesters say they are pro Russia - but in my opinion this is a grave mistake, and Belarus will soon find itself as a Russia-controlled state.

  • by bmmayer1 on 9/8/20, 1:14 PM

    Whereas this is monstrous, one has to ask if PandaDoc leadership is acting recklessly by criticizing a foreign dictatorship from afar, while their employees and assets are still at risk. At least Bill Browder had the foresight to get most of his employees (and his money) out of Russia before he started going after Putin...and yet Magnitsky still paid the ultimate price. This is a dangerous game that they're playing and I really hope for the safety of the PandaDoc team.

    Edit: Updated to reflect that company was founded in Minsk and later relocated to SV. Still dangerous.