How a Belarusian exile vanished in waters held by Russia

Belarusian exile and former sports official Anatol Kotau boarded a private yacht near Turkey on August 21, 2025, and was intercepted by the Russian Coast Guard approximately three hours into his journey, according to an investigation by Deutsche Welle, the Belarusian Investigative Center, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which determined the operation likely involved cooperation between Russian and Belarusian authorities. Kotau, a critic of Lukashenko's regime who fled Belarus in 2020 and was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison in 2024, faced arrest warrants from both Belarus and Russia.