36-year-old Minsk resident named Aliaksandr, born under Taurus zodiac sign: Portrait of typical Belarusian ‘extremist’
The Belarusian police have already declared more than 1,880 people “extremists”. A scientist named Siarhei Besarab analyzed information available on these people and compiled it into a “portrait” of a Belarusian disloyal to the regime.
Siarhei Besarab, a Belarusian scientist and administrator of the LAB-66 Telegram channel, has conducted a big data analysis on a list of people “involved in extremist activities”. The list is posted on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website. The data available as of November 4, 2022, were used for the analysis. At the time, there were 1,714 people on the list, and now there are 1,881. 80% of people on the list are men, and women comprise the remaining 20%. The youngest person on the list is a 17-year-old boy, and the oldest is an 82-year-old woman. The most popular men’s names on the list are Aliaksandr, Siarhei, and Andrei. The most common women’s names are Tatsiana, Natallia, Volha, and Alena.
Thus, a “typical Belarusian extremist” is a man named Aliaksandr who is about 36 years old. As for the geographical distribution of “extremism” in Belarus, 28.7% of people on the list hail from Minsk, which is followed by regional centers: Homel (6.7%), Brest (6.6%), and Hrodna (5.9%). However, the regional distribution of “extremism” is relatively uniform, and there is no significant difference between the east and west of Belarus. The author remarks that “one can study the geography of Belarus” using this list.
Most people on the list were convicted on charges of “organizing and preparing actions that grossly violate public order”, “insulting a representative of the authorities”, and “discrediting the Republic of Belarus”. At the same time, people can be convicted on several charges at once.
The researcher also decided to add a fun touch to the statistical analysis: his results demonstrated that people born under the zodiac signs of Taurus, Cancer, and Leo tend to be the most active protesters, while Scorpio, Gemini, and Pisces are shown to be the least active ones. People born in the years of Rat, Rooster, Dog, and Monkey according to the Chinese calendar are the least likely to be on the “extremist” list, whereas those born in the years of Hare and Horse are the most likely to end up on the said list.