Ex-Green Party leader is mocked for not knowing where Minsk is during University Challenge
The Durham University alumni team led by Carla Denyer thought Minsk was in Russia, rather than Belarus - in an error that left University Challenge host Amol Rajan laughing.
By MARK DUELL, SENIOR REPORTER
Published: 12:08 GMT, 2 January 2026 | Updated: 13:58 GMT, 2 January 2026
The former Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has been mocked after thinking Minsk was in Russia during an awkward moment on University Challenge.
In an error that left host Amol Rajan laughing last night, the Durham University alumni quartet failed to know that the port city is actually the capital of Belarus.
During a Christmas special of the episode on BBC Two, Rajan had asked: 'Now the most populous city north of the Arctic Circle, which Russian city was founded on the Kola Peninsula in the 1910s to serve as a naturally ice-free seaport for the country?'
TikTok influencer Sophia Smith Galer asked her teammates: 'Minsk isn't in Russia is it?' But the broadcaster Tracey MacLeod replied: 'Yes', as Smith Galler said: 'It is?'
Team captain Ms Denyer then answered to Rajan: 'Minsk?' But the host laughed after telling them: 'Minsk is the capital of Belarus. It's Murmansk that we're after.'
Durham, whose team also featured art historian Liz James, eventually had the last laugh as they beat Trinity College Cambridge by 185 to 125 in the semi-final.
But one viewer tweeted: 'Carla Denyer MP, until recently leader of the Greens, was on University Challenge last night and she didn't know where Minsk was.
'Am I being unreasonable in thinking that seems like a pretty big knowledge gap for *a party leader* given events in Ukraine over the last four years?'
Former Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer led a Durham alumni team on University Challenge
The Durham team of (L-R) Liz James, Tracey MacLeod, Carla Denyer and Sophia Smith Galer
University Challenge host Amol Rajan laughed and told them: 'Minsk is the capital of Belarus'
Carla Denyer (left) and Sophia Smith Galer during University Challenge on BBC Two last night
Another wrote: 'I find it remarkable that there are still people who expect MPs to know anything. The default value for most MPs these days - with a very few exceptions - is profound ignorance.'
The error is reminiscent of a 1994 episode of the TV comedy Friends, in which Minsk is described as being 'in Russia' by Max, a colleague of Phoebe's boyfriend David.