Watchdog

More than half of the editorial staff at the Ukrainian-language version of "Forbes" have resigned to protest alleged censorship by the magazine's new management.

Barys Davydenko, "Forbes" senior editor, said on November 13 that he and 13 others resigned after an investigation of First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov's advisers was rejected by the publication's new editor in chief, Mikhail Kotov.

Arbuzov is believed to have ties to the magazine's new owner, millionaire Serhiy Kurchenko.

Davydenko added that Kotov said the staff would get a list of topics that should never be covered. Kotov denied the censorship charges and said the journalists are biased against the new owner.

The Ukrainian version of "Forbes" was first published in 2011.

Based on reporting by AP and ITAR-TASS

MINSK -- The former governor of Minsk Oblast, Barys Batura, says he is ready to be arrested after angering President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

On November 8, Lukashenka publicly removed Batura from his post while the two of them toured a state-owned timber plant in the city of Barysau.

Lukashenka, who was unhappy with the conditions at the plant, threatened a criminal probe against Batura unless he took over as director of the plant and rectified the situation by spring.

Batura told RFE/RL's Belarus Service on November 11 that he has no plans to work at the facility, saying, "Let them arrest me. We are not free people anyway and we feel bad about it."

Lukashenka has been criticized by human rights organizations for his authoritarian rule.