It’s been three months since Russia invaded Ukraine, and the future is still unclear. In this program, we will discuss how Europe should react. How has the European political infrastructure held up to war so close to its territories? What’s the importance of independence of gas? Where should Europe stand on providing weaponry and diplomacy? How can member states and the European Parliament work together? And how will Ukraine fit into the Union? A lot of possible scenarios.
Franak Viačorka is Belarusian politician, journalist and advisor to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Born activist, he was jailed multiple times by the Belarusian government.
Natalia Antelava is a Georgian journalist and co-founder of Codastory. She is an Emmy nominee and was short-listed for the European Press Prize.
Ruben Brekelmans is a member of Dutch Parliament for the VVD. He is a member of the commision on Foreign Affairs and a delegate to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Thijs Reuten is a member of the European Parliament for the PvdA. He is a shadow rapporteur on Belarus.
This programme is part of So Far, Yet So Close: A day-long program of talks, film, and art about the war in Ukraine, activism and the fight against authoritarianism from a Belarusian perspective.
Speakers
Festival Programme
Who’s next? Eastern Europe asking
The war in Ukraine has made it abundantly clear that we’ve not been listening enough to states bordering on Russia. Whether from the Baltic area or from the Caucasus, from Belarus or from Kazakhstan, everyone’s asking: who’s next? In this program, we will discuss with (former) reporters in post-Soviet states what it means to live
How to fight for democracy?
How do you keep fighting in a country that is terrorized by a dictator? In Belarus, this means dealing with teargas, state violence and fake news. In this program, we will be looking into the mass protests in August 2020 with those who participated in them, those who organized them and those who wrote about them.
So Far, Yet So Close
Every day we wake up and look at the news, and sometimes you can feel paralysed and silenced in the face of evil and terror. But despite all circumstances we chose to raise my voice and say out loud ‘No!’- no to the war, no to the oppression, no to the death Lena Davidovich, artist
