Featured stories about Belarus
Stories about Belarus
People fleeing from Russia: ‘We were deprived of “home” too’
Valeria considers her story banal: “I left Russia because I can’t and don’t want to be silent, and I don’t want to go to jail for this either.”
Belarusian Westernizers: Their debacle and perpetual bewilderment
Grigory Ioffe writes about the growing rupture between the new Belarusian diaspora and those who remain in the country, as well as the hopeless plight of Belarusian political prisoners.
There are almost 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus
The main tools for repressing critics of the regime and dissidents in Belarus are still criminal and administrative prosecution, arbitrary arrests, dismissals from work and de facto deportations
The band that Lukashenka declared extremist sang ‘Zhyve Belarus’ (Long live Belarus!)
Rarely covered by the international media, Lukashenka’s regime is using Stalin-like repression on its citizens. Dissidents are detained and prosecuted and, in many cases now, their family members are too.
What did the outside world in the 1930s know about the Soviet famine and the ‘Holodomor’ in Ukraine?
Many Ukrainians used social networks to raise awareness of the 1932-1933 Soviet famine as they see the ongoing Russian aggression against their country as a continuation of the same imperial repression.
TikToker Nekoglai was deported from Moscow to Moldova with signs of torture
The “ritual of guilt and shame” has been increasingly used by the Russian police to publicly show the “remorse” and fear of those protesting
‘It is really difficult to see resistance when we don't see pictures of street protests': Interview with Belarusian activist Hanna Liubakova
Famous journalist in exile, Atlantic Council non-resident fellow and media trainer on what the country's opposition media needs to do when there are no visible protests in the dictatorship
Is the European Union applying a practical visa policy on Russia? Interview with activist Almut Rochowanski
We hear a lot of Ukrainian civil society voices, but these are elite voices. For Belarusians, their revolution is still ongoing. For European foreign policy experts, the uprising is over, and it failed.
Lives, interrupted: The human cost of resistance in Belarus
Hanna Liubakova, an associated member of the Atlantic Council, journalist and media trainer, posted a Twitter thread about the most recent and most shocking cases of political prisoners in Belarus
Prague Pride parade is back after a two-year pandemic hiatus: A photo essay
Considered one of the largest in Central Europe, Prague Pride’s parade returned to the streets on August 13 after a two-year hiatus, drawing an estimated 60,000 people.
Croatian citizens and businesses express support for Ukraine in various ways
Protest participants displayed Ukrainian and Croatian flags, shouted slogans and sung Ukrainian songs. The protest also featured banners with photographs comparing Donbas with the siege and bombardment of the Croatian city of Vukovar in 1991.
The battle of identities: Why the Kremlin claims to speak for ‘Russian-speakers’ in Ukraine
Moscow has promoted itself as the protector of Russian-speakers across the post-Soviet space yet many do not identify with Russia. Today it is instrumentalizing a diverse community to attack Ukraine.
What does “Russian World” stand for in Putin’s statements about Ukraine?
The statements of Vladimir Putin about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine frequently include a key expression: “Русский Мир” (Russkiy mir). This phrase literally means the “Russian world”.
Belarusian cyberactivists claim railway system hack to protest Russian troop movements
The hacker collective said it would be prepared to hand over encryption keys if 50 Belarusian political prisoners were released and the presence of Russian troops in Belarus was “prevented.”
The Soviet Union existed for 70 years, but don’t expect to find it as a location in the world of comic books
Only a handful of mainstream comics published during the existence of the Soviet Union actually take place within its borders, and those that did often promoted stereotypes.
Google removes YouTube ads featuring interrogations of Belarusian political prisoners
The short videos, used to promote pro-government channels, feature opposition members and independent journalists imprisoned by the Lukashenka regime in what look like forced confessions made under duress.
Belarus, transformed: political analysts track social and political change in the country
"The Belarusians have re-envisioned their national identity, giving birth to a new civil society and reformatting social processes that generate new patterns of behavior."
An impossible task: Serbia on the European path, hand in hand with Russia and China
Serbia keeps touting the country’s progress in aligning itself with EU foreign policy, but real gains won’t happen with Kosovo on the agenda.
Poland reinforces border with Belarus as migrant crisis escalates
The EU had previously accused Belarus' Lukashenka of flying in migrants from the MENA region and South Asia and bringing them to the EU's borders to retaliate against sanctions.
Belarus authorities block access to more independent media added to extremist list
The websites of Deutsche Welle, Current Time and the employees and readers of BelsatTV and NEXTA are the latest targets in Belarus' ongoing crackdown on independent media and free expression.
Cats, crows and planet Earth: drawings by Belarusian political prisoners
Drawings sent to friends and family by Belarusian political prisoners, detained in a crackdown after the 2020 elections, provide an insight into their lives.
