Polina Zyl

Affiliated media: Blogger

Incident date: September 5, 2025

Attack type:

• Selective application of repressive laws

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Minsk

Additional information:

The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs has added Polina Zyl, a blogger from Mazyr, to the “list of persons involved in extremist activity”. It is also reported that the sentence handed down to her has entered into legal force, and that the convicted woman is serving her sentence. In early July, it became known that the Central District Court of Minsk sentenced Polina Zyl to one year of imprisonment, to be served in a general-regime penal colony. She was charged under Part 1 of Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (“Organisation and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them”). Polina Zyl ran a YouTube channel entitled “Countdown”, where she addressed viewers as “one of their own” — a young woman from the regions who sees injustice and seeks ways to overcome it.