HRF’s Dissidents and Dictators interview series presents the latest episode with featured guest Andrei Sannikov (@A_Sannikov), former Belarusian presidential candidate, hosted by HRF’s Alexander Sikorski.
Weeks of protests have brought the regime of Alexander Lukashenko to the brink. After fraudulent elections denied challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya victory, hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have made their voices heard in every city in Belarus, despite brutal and murderous behaviour from the internal security forces.
These protests have spooked Lukashenko so much that he has posed for pictures wearing a bulletproof vest and brandishing a rifle. Since then, the regime has continued its crackdown, randomly arresting protesters off the street, and deliberately attacking journalists and human rights activists.
As Belarus teeters on the verge of a democratic breakthrough, HRF’s Alexander Sikorski speaks to Andrei Sannikov, a Belarusian democracy activist and former presidential candidate about the history of activism in Belarus, the role of technology in the current protests, and what the future may have in store for Belarus.