Although they are mentioned in conjunction with the execution of the criminal orders of the Nazis, they still offer quite a wide field for interpretation. At the same time, there are two phrases in this construct that raise concern: “other persons” and “in any form”. This description explicitly lists the categories of those who qualify as accomplices of the Nazis. As a result, the most dubious notion in the new law is the ‘accomplices of the Nazi criminals’, who are designated as “executors of orders of the Nazi regime, the military command of the Wehrmacht, SS soldiers, auxiliary police, and their allies from among the population of the occupied territories who voluntarily or upon conscription joined these units, as well as other persons who deliberately assisted in the execution of the criminal orders of Nazi criminals in any form”. These definitions refer strictly to the indictments of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg and so are not difficult to interpret. The newly adopted law introduces several concepts that previously did not exist in Belarusian legislation, including ‘Nazism’ and ‘Nazi criminals’. Who are the Nazis according to Lukashenka’s regime? This article offers an overview of the implications of Lukashenka’s campaign against Nazism for Belarusian society. On the other hand, the legislative and judicial tools used by the regime to tackle the issue of Nazism need to be thoroughly analysed in order to understand how they may impact Belarusian society. On the one hand, Minsk’s questionable actions involve messages inconsistent with established historical facts, particularly those concerning the AK’s activities during WWII. These include battalions in the Lithuanian SS and the Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa, AK). This statement has already caused official reactions from Lithuania and Poland. When commenting on the developments of this case, Andrei Shved, Belarus’s Prosecutor General, stated that the authorities have information regarding several still living Nazi criminals who participated in atrocities committed by various foreign units.
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