Supporters urge probe into Belarusian dissident Anatol Kotau's disappearance

Supporters of Belarusian opposition figure Anatol Kotau are urging the United States, Poland, the European Union and the United Nations to investigate his disappearance after a joint reconstruction suggested he may have been taken by Russian authorities in the Black Sea. Kotau, 46, vanished after arriving in Turkey from Warsaw on August 21, 2025, and was last seen at the port in Trabzon at about 6:35 p.m., shortly before boarding a yacht whose route pointed toward waters off Abkhazia.

The reconstruction said Kotau was aboard the vessel with two Russian men, a woman from Azerbaijan and four crew members when it was intercepted at sea. Investigators said the yacht was likely stopped by the Russian coast guard, which Deutsche Welle has described as a division of the FSB, and that Kotau was removed from the boat. They traced the vessel using documents, satellite imagery, leaked databases, surveillance footage, passenger manifests, border records, social media posts and interviews, and said it had links to Belarusian individuals and companies with close ties to the KGB.

Kotau’s disappearance has carried particular weight because he was already a marked man in Minsk. A Belarusian court sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison on charges of extremism and conspiracy to seize power, charges he denied. He had resigned from the Belarusian presidential administration in 2020 after condemning the crackdown on protesters over the disputed presidential election, later worked at the Belarusian embassy in Poland and as secretary-general of the Belarusian Olympic Committee, and then moved into opposition work from Warsaw. He also held refugee status in Poland.

The missing-person case has widened beyond family concern into a diplomatic appeal. Dmitry Bolkunets, an exiled activist, wrote to U.S. national security adviser Andy Baker and Trump envoy John Coale, and also contacted Polish leaders, the EU foreign policy chief and a U.N. working group on involuntary disappearances. Kotau’s wife, Anastasia Kotau, said she hoped the appeals would prompt further investigation in the United States and Poland. The family filed a missing-person report with Turkish police.

The case has become a test of whether exile still protects dissidents once they move across multiple jurisdictions. Human Rights Watch said Belarus expanded the use of criminal trials in absentia against exiled activists in 2025, a pattern that supporters say has made it easier for authoritarian governments to pursue opponents far from home and harder for outside institutions to prove exactly what happened when they disappear.