“Lukashenkers“ Like Your Husband Must Die“

Anonymous people threaten the family of a Homiel resident whose name turned to be in the centre of a trolling scandal.

The life of Internet-trolls seems to be carefree at first sight: just sit in front of a screen, troll other users and get money for this uncomplicated task. But there is the other side of the coin.

The persons suspected of trolling are insulted and threatened by not indifferent Belarusians and it is sometimes difficult to prove you were framed up.

Andrej Kucenka, a 24-year-old Homel resident, faced that very problem.

Patriotic Person's Posts

An ad saying, "A person to post comments on political and oppositional web sites is wanted. The posts must be adequate and reflect a patriotic person’s view [what means to take pro-Lukasheka stance — tr.]", appeared on free-lance.ru. Undoubtedly, it awoke interest of Belarusian users.

Nasha Niva wondered how well such posts are paid.

The daily tried to contact the author of the ad. This person was hiding under the nickname Pacavaca. Pacavaca, apart from his "political projects", searched for Photoshop experts, humorous verse authors and offered World of Warcraft server optimization.

The information from Skype and ICQ brought us to Andrej Kucenka. When Nasha Niva’s correspondent asked him about the offer to troll for money, he said, "You are the third person to ask me already. I haven't placed this ad".

Executor, Not Seller

The next day we Skyped Andrej on behalf of Nasha Niva and he told us his mysterious story.

According to Mr. Kucenka, he did have an account on free-lance.ru — but a different one — and was an executor, not a seller. What the "fake" Pacavaca is concerned about, some real Andrej’s ads were posted by it. Furthermore, Andrej uses nickname Pacavaca on several other web resources.

"There is some ad posted on behalf of Pacavaca. Particularly, I advertised my WoW servers. That what I did for a living. However, all my servers were blocked as they violated Bizzard copyright, all my employees were dismissed", says Mr. Kucenka. "I used to look for help on forums, asked about scripts and development. The posts on free-lance.ru are duplicates of my posts on other forums".

Who may do this stuff?

How did the fake account appear on free-lance.ru and whom is Andrej blaming?

"When I was looking for assistants to realize some projects, I posted a notification on free-lance.ru and a person under the nickname Pacavaca helped me to find them. Now, due to some unclear for me reasons, this person posts ad on political trolling", says Mr. Kucenka."I share some of Lukashenka’s points, but not to such an extend, that I would write pro-Lukashenka posts".

"I really do not know who may do this stuff. Maybe some guys who helped me with my WoW servers".

Andrej has "United Civil Party of Belarus" [a Belarusian opposition party — tr.] point in his "Activity" field on Vkontakte — a social network popular among Belarusians. "I am not a member of the party, but I like Mr. Ramanchuk [UCPoB ex-leader and ex-presidential candidate — tr.] position. I don’t follow the news after the elections. And Mr. Ramanchuk is not a member of UCPoB any more".

However, Mr.Kucenka and his wife were threatened.

"I have my personal data on web and I don’t hide it. But several days ago even my home address was made public in Vkontakte. People friend me and write nonsense. For example, my wife got a message that read "Lukashenkers’* like your husband must god damn die!" There was also an SMS. I don’t know how to fix this and how to protect my family",
says Mr. Kucenka.

*We decided to call such people "lukashenkers" as this word is more English-like. In Belarus they are called "zastabily" which literary — though in a sarcastic manner — means "the advocates of stability", the 17-year-old Lukashenka's stability. — NN