The State Control Committee raided vendors selling Hagi-Wagi toys.

This was reported by the Sputnik Belarus agency.

They came with inspections to seven retail outlets at once.

As a result, a ban was imposed on the sale of 29 batches (782 pieces) of monster toys.

What is Hagi-Wagi famous for?

Is this toy really the image of evil?

We asked a philosopher and a priest whether Hagi-Vaga has manifestations of Satanism, and we tell you the story of the monster.

Who is that?

This plush toy has become popular all over the world over the years.

Belarus was not an exception here.

Kids everywhere are begging their parents to buy them this soft monster.

Huggy Waggy appeared in the computer horror game Poppy Playtime.

According to the plot, Hagi-Wagi was good at first, but changed his character after an accident at the toy factory.

The monster is hunting the main character of the game.

Hagi-Wagi himself is somewhat human-like, but has completely disproportionate limbs, blue fur, a triangular head, and a huge mouth full of teeth.

His name was formed from the English word Hug ("to hug").

It is believed that Hagi-Wagi can hug to death.

The game was released in October 2021, but the real popularity of the blue toy came from Tik Tok.

It was there that Hagi-Waggi came up with the Kissi-Missi companion.

It is also widely sold along with Hagi Wagi.

Psychologists argue about the harmfulness of the Hagi-Waga toy for children's consciousness.

They do not have a single opinion on this issue.

What is in Belarus?

Volga Bondarova, a pro-government activist from Hrodna, drew attention to the popular children's toy.

She called it a manifestation of "Satanism."

Bondarova is known for the fact that after her letters to the state authorities, people were arrested and cultural events were canceled.

Recently, Bondarova contributed to the disappearance of the bas-reliefs of Natalya Arsenneva, Larisa Geniyush and Kastus Kalinouski in the estate of Anatoly Bely in Stary Dorogy.

Sputnik writes that a group of concerned parents approached the Belarusian ministries and agencies, asking them to "give an assessment of the impact of the Hagi-Waga toy on children's psyche."

They do not say who these parents are.

As a result, the answer came only from the KDC.

In its response, the state control cites a Russian private expertise on Hagi-Vaga.

It states that "the toy creates an image of aggression, cruelty, predatory and merciless evil."

"The toy carries a double meaning"

Philosopher and theologian

says that the influence of the Hagi-Vaga toy on children's psyche causes many concerns among psychologists and educators of different countries.

"The point here is not in "Satanism", but simply in the fact that the doll carries a double meaning: love and death, and both of these components are mixed into one, presented in one flask.

The doll is supposedly a cute creature that likes to hug, but during the hug it strangles the victim to death.

In the case of small children, who have a strong imitative reflex and in whom the difference between reality and fiction is only just being formed, the company of such "dolls" causes unfounded concern," says Rudkovsky.

The philosopher says that in this case we are still dealing with the activity of one "morally concerned lady" and the measures of the Communist Party of Ukraine, but it is not a fact that this will result in a nationwide campaign against the monster.

In general, there is a question of how the state reacts to this kind of threat.

"To broaden the perspective a little, let's recall the "fight against drug addiction" launched by the regime in Belarus six or seven years ago.

It cannot be said that drug addiction is a good or even a neutral thing.

But Lukashenka set such a style of "struggle with drug addiction" that as a result, hundreds of young people, many of them minors, became victims of sadistic-authoritarian methods of "re-education", or rather, the destruction of their lives.

The main task of any responsible campaign against the threat is a sober analysis of whether the measures undertaken do not have more side effects than the threat itself.

Rudkovskyi says that in the case of Bondarova and the KDC, we have "exalted criticism and thoughtless mixing of 'Satanism'."

"With a more accurate analysis, it can be seen that the root of all this is the obsession with the civilizational struggle against the "destructive West".

The doll here is one of the protests.

At the same time, such cases can be a test of adulthood.

The very fact that authoritarian institutions are fighting a phenomenon does not mean that it is good.

The fact that some regime institution has declared war on Hagi-Waga does not automatically mean that this doll does not actually pose any threat to small children," the philosopher suggests.

"It reminded me of the parable about the knot and the log"

Pastor of the Protestant Church of the Holy Trinity (Warsaw), Belarusian

says that Hagi-Wagi is, first of all, just a toy.

"It does not carry more reality than some pro-Lukashenka activists try to give it.

It is interesting that Bondarova called Hagi-Wagi toys Satanism.

If we leave the toys behind the parenthesis, then the Christian teaching claims that the manifestations of Satanism are ideologies that make you worship yourself.

What officials, security forces and propagandists are doing in Belarus today is more in line with the biblical definition of Satanism than the Hagi-Wagi toy," says Khvedaruk.

Nevertheless, the pastor urges parents to pay more attention to what toys their children are playing with, what they are looking at on their gadgets.

"State bodies, KDC and other departments with three-letter abbreviations are more likely to create images of aggression, ruthless evil, cruelty.

They commit lawlessness, send people behind bars, destroy destinies - and all by serving their master.

This is a bit like the parable of the twig and the log.

They see a small knot in a toy that children play with, but they don't see a huge log in themselves - how they rape people and spread suffering," Zmytser Khvedaruk sums up.

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