Belarus – The Domestic and International Politics of Democratic Revolution

Despite months of mass protests on streets across the country and the refusal by many of his neighbors to recognize him as the legitimate President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko seems determined to hold onto power. The situation is delicately poised and the balance of domestic forces and international players remains unclear. What is next for Belarus, its people and its democratic revolution?

Join us for a roundtable discussion with Volha Charnysh (MIT), Aliaksandr Herasimenka (University of Oxford), Hanna Liubakova (Independent journalist), Arkady Moshes (Finnish Institute of International Affairs) and Gwendolyn Sasse (University of Oxford; ZOiS). The discussion will be moderated by Graeme Robertson (CSEEES Director).

This is the second installment in a series of conversations about the political situation in Belarus. Co-presented by the King’s College Russia Institute; the Comparative Authoritarian Protest Research Network at the University of Manchester; the Centre for East European and International Studies in Berlin; and the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies.

Please register for the event here. 

Volha Charnysh is an assistant professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2017. Charnysh’s research focuses on historical political economy, legacies of violence, nation- and state-building, and ethnic politics.
 
 
Aliaksandr Herasimenka is a political communication scholar and a postdoctoral researcher at University of Oxford’s Computational Propaganda Project. His work investigates how political organizations and authoritarian governments use social media to manipulate public opinion.
 
 
Hanna Liubakova is a freelance journalist from Belarus and a non-resident Atlantic Council fellow. She started her journalistic career as a correspondent at the only independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat. She currently serves as a mentor with Transitions Online Solutions Journalism Program in Central East Europe.
 
 
Arkady Moshes is the director of the EU Eastern Neighborhood and Russia research program at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His policy work and research examines Russia-EU relations and internal and foreign policy of Ukraine and Belarus.
 
 
Gwendolyn Sasse is a professor of comparative politics at the University of Oxford and the director of the Center for East European and International Studies in Berlin. Her research focuses on East Europe and the former Soviet Union, EU enlargement, and comparative democratization.