US funding cut puts Belarusian opposition at risk

Brussels –Hanna Liubakova warns that the US fund cut jeopardizes the work of the Belarusian opposition. The journalist and activist explained during her speech at the Civil Society Week of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) how the radical spending review operated by the Trump administration could lead to closing, among other things, the influential Radio Free Europe, a 47-million-listener-per-week broadcaster active in Eastern Europe. However, Liubakova was optimistic that the European Union could take over at least part of the US financial aid, saving the station and many of the opposition’s activities in exile. 

The journalist has been in Lithuania since 2020 and serves as a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington. “They haven’t closed that one yet,” she joked. In Minsk, she was convicted in absentia to 10 years in prison on four different charges of “extremism.” Liubakova then outlined the situation of freedom of the press and information in Belarus. There are at least 40 imprisoned journalists in the country. Over 5 thousand pages, including those of many major Western media outlets, are not visible online. Publication of material disagreeable to the government or even a simple comment on social media can lead to prosecution and imprisonment. It is from social media, however, that people can access opposition content: thanks to VPN use, millions of people in the country view their videos on Youtube and (perhaps surprisingly) TikTok.

The leader of this movement is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a known presence in the European institutions and particularly at the EESC. “We often do outreach events with her, and although Belarus may not be a candidate country today, we try to carry out concrete initiatives to engage its population, especially the younger part of it,” explained Committee Chairman Oliver Röpke. “I dream that Belarus will one day be part of the big European family, that my compatriots will have a choice,” Liubakova concluded.