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New issue of private weekly Nasha Niva prevented from sale through Belsayuzdruk network

Belsayuzdruk, a state monopolist that runs a network of newsstands and stores across Belarus, has not released for distribution a new issue of the Belarusian-language private weekly Nasha Niva, BelaPAN reports.

According to the newspaper’s representative, the issue left the printing house as usual at 8 a.m. on Wednesday and was to have started to be on sale through Belsayuzdruk newsstands on Wednesday afternoon in Minsk and on Thursday morning in the provinces. A source at Belsayuzdruk claimed that the issue had been sent for retail sale, but Nasha Niva journalists visited newsstands in different parts of Minsk and found out that the issue was not on sale. A newsstand salesperson said that her superior had told her that the issue would not be on sale.

The issue was reported to be unavailable in Hrodna, Homyel, Brest, Lida, Salihorsk, Barysaw and Belaazyorsk. In Mahilyow, only one newsstand was found to be offering the newspaper.

Nasha Niva editors believe that the issue was not released for distribution because it front-pages an article titled, “Godbatska Surrenders,” which reports on a major Russian TV channel’s move to broadcast a documentary implicating Alyaksandr Lukashenka in the disappearances of his political opponents.

On Sunday evening, Russia’s government-controlled NTV broadcast “Kryostny Batska” (The Godbatska), a film that tells about the mysterious death of opposition leader Henadz Karpenka and the disappearances of former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, opposition politician Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasowski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski, who are alleged to have been kidnapped and murdered by a government-run death squad.