Andrei Sannikov: Windows Of Opportunity May Open Soon

• 14.11.2025, 18:25

Sometimes change happens unexpectedly.

The General Assembly of the World Freedom Congress, which united fighters against dictatorships from all over the world, was held in Berlin in the building of the city parliament on November 8-9. There was also a delegation from Belarus.

What makes this event unique? The site Charter97.org talked about it with the leader of the civil campaign "European Belarus" Andrei Sannikov:

- The Freedom Congress itself is unique, because it is an organization that united people fighting against dictatorship, victims of it from almost all autarkies and dictatorships. Most of the participants have gone through the toughest trials, many have been in prison, gone through torture, but continue to fight their dictatorships. There is no other such organization in the world. It emerged in 2022, the founding conference was held in Vilnius. Now the Congress has reached a higher and more active level. There are more people, unfortunately, because there are more autocracies and dictatorships in the world. But the determination to fight these dictatorships has not diminished. We have all the world's regions present in the Congress, again unfortunately. Sharing experiences, supporting each other, solidarity with those of our members who are now in prison is very important.

We had a very strong delegation at the Congress. Our champion Alexandra Gerasimenya, who was very warmly received, Nia Gladenka, who raised the hall with her speech about the importance of helping Ukraine, Anton Malkin, one of the leaders of our diaspora in Germany. All in all, a "dream team."

- You have been elected ombudsman of the World Freedom Congress. What does this position mean? What will you do in this organization?

- There was a change of leadership at the Congress. As Garry Kasparov, who left his position on the Executive Council, ironically put it, "there was a peaceful transfer of power". I was elected to the Executive Council as ombudsman. It is a great honor and a great responsibility. The Ombudsman, by definition, deals with issues related to human rights. This will concern both our internal life - the life of members of Congress, relations between different projects, plans, people - and external aspects.

I plan, first of all, to pay attention to political prisoners. At this Congress we have constantly talked about Belarusian political prisoners. We are going to discuss concrete plans next week - plans of activity of the whole Congress and, in particular, of the Ombudsman. I have some thoughts, I will make some proposals, I will continue some actions and projects that I have been conducting. Something more or less concrete can be said in a month. For now I have no right to voice internal discussions. In any case, I believe that this is a good enough position to raise the level of international attention to the catastrophic situation of political prisoners in Belarus.

- What global trends in the confrontation with dictatorships do you see? In which countries have freedom fighters come closer to defeating tyrannies?

- The global trend is that it has become much more difficult to fight dictatorships. Criminal regimes, even hating each other, have succeeded in coordinating their actions to maintain power. The democratic world is not always ready to fulfill its own obligations to protect human rights and democracy and often helps dictatorships to survive.

If we take specific examples, in particular Belarus, when we had opportunities to get rid of dictatorships, Western democracies were never ready for it and only made threatening statements after the dispersal of regular protests.

For me, the most vivid example of the failure of Western policy is Venezuela, where about 80% voted against Maduro. And these votes were recorded, counted, but the world remained silent: they continued to buy oil and trade, and did not impose sanctions. And only now the United States is sending destroyers there, preparing an operation against the drug cartels.

In general, when things go too far, only such forceful decisions can stop a dictatorship. But in the situation, say, with Belarus and many other countries, there are opportunities to increase pressure, excluding any use of external force at all. Therefore, it seems to me that many brave freedom fighters I met during the Congress would like to count not on words, but on deeds of the democratic world. There are many great opportunities here, in my opinion.

Change happens sometimes unexpectedly, as in Syria. No one expected such events, but they happened, and that's great. There are already members of our Congress in the Syrian government and in the governments of other countries. For example, in Bolivia there was a change of power with a plus sign. In general, there are some shifts, but that does not mean that the overall situation is somehow improving. It remains catastrophic.

- You had a number of meetings in Germany. Who did you manage to talk to, what topics were raised?

- There was a busy "Week of Freedom" to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall. This was also a concept proposed by our Congress to the Berlin authorities, and they were happy to support it. There was a whole week of events, which is still ongoing and will end only today. There were many different conferences and meetings. I was invited to speak to high school students 18-19 years old. It was the first time the school where I spoke had decided to hold such an event. I did not expect it: there was a full hall of students, very good questions, absolutely not naive.

Among other things, I spoke about the most powerful anti-dictatorial youth movement in Eastern Europe "Zubr". The students were very interested in this. The young people were concerned about the war, how likely it was that Russia might come close to the border or even cross the border of those countries in the west of Europe, including Germany. In general, the guys were quite well prepared, and it was obvious that they were not just concerned about everyday issues, but about foreign policy - because they directly connect their lives with their security. It was a meeting that gives a lot of hope, because this is a new generation that will be in politics.

There were high-level meetings in the Bundestag, where I raised questions about political prisoners. The actions of the United States are very questionable to me. I am happy for every released political prisoner, but dictator Lukashenko is simply mocking both political prisoners and Trump, when he takes more goods for trade than he releases.

I must say that Bundestag deputies from different factions, with different views, agreed - they have approximately the same opinion. But after that, the logical question arises: why don't you act more actively to release people? But this question is still hanging in the air.

There were other meetings during the Congress itself and after it. We visited the Stasi archive museum and the former prison. It was not an emotional visit, but the information was useful, because we have to work with the KGB archives, I think, in the near future. It was useful to share experience, to see how it is done with such powerful dictatorial structures as the Stasi, one of the most sinister intelligence services in the world. It was enlightening to learn what kind of detention regimes were in Stasi prisons. For example, while in "Amerikanka" the guards warned the prisoners about leaving their cells by whistling, in the GDR prison there was an electric alarm system. The Stasi prison was first a KGB prison - it was an old building, then they built a new one, and it became a Stasi prison with 100 cells: 100 cells and 100 interrogation rooms. That is, there was an office for each cell. Comrades from the Stasi lived in luxury. There were other meetings - quite useful, political, human.

- Considering the experience of other countries fighting dictatorships, what should we, Belarusians, pay attention to? What experience should we adopt, who should we read about?

- Belarusians have enough experience of struggle. Now we need to find some algorithm of actions, because you can't demand from people inside Belarus to be active, if they are sentenced even for likes in "Facebook". But at the same time, hatred towards the regime has not disappeared - in my opinion, it's growing. Therefore, we, those who are relatively safe and outside Belarus, should think about what windows of opportunity may open in the near future. And they should open - both in connection with Russia's war against Ukraine, and in connection with the catastrophic situation, the paralysis of power in Belarus. Apart from repression, this government is no longer capable of anything, as the failures in all areas show.

Therefore, the experience here is, of course, very interesting. And when we talk to representatives of different countries, we generally speak the same language. It is also useful to learn how we can support people in prison - we discuss this too. But I don't want to spread it, because I brought some interesting ideas from Berlin, and I think it will be possible to implement them and then talk about it publicly.