Hanna Liubakova Launches a New Forum for Belarus at the Heart of European Policy

During her residency at Reid Hall, Hanna Liubakova — a Belarusian journalist and political analyst — is hosting a new program that raises urgent questions about Belarus in the halls of the European Parliament. "Agora. Belarusian Vector," produced by Belsat and broadcast monthly, convenes members of the European Parliament alongside Belarusian experts for substantive, English-language discussions on Belarus and its place in European geopolitics. Two episodes have now aired, and the series is already staking out an important space in the conversation about European democracy, accountability, and free press.

Watch episode one here and episode two here.

The premise of "Agora" is as clear as it is necessary: too few voices are making the case for Belarus at the international level. As Liubakova explains it, she spent years writing primarily for English-language publications with the goal of expanding knowledge about Belarus among foreign audiences, and "Agora" extends that mission into a new format. Each episode gives European parliamentarians and policymakers the opportunity to weigh in on Belarus — and gives Belarusian audiences a window into how Europe sees them. "There aren't enough voices at the international level," she says. "So I decided to dedicate my time to this."

The first episode focused on the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with particular attention to Belarus's role as co-aggressor and the risk that the country is fading from European political attention. Guests included MEP and former Lithuanian Defense Minister Rasa Juknevičienė and Polish MEP and former European Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, alongside Belarusian expert Hanna Stähle. 

Liubakova pressed her guests on the divergence between American and European policy toward the Lukashenko regime, the unfinished business of sanctions, and what it would take to keep Belarus visible on the European agenda. The episode surfaces a tension that runs through all of Liubakova's work: as she puts it, "against the backdrop of events in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, and Africa, covering Belarus has become even more difficult — but we must do this to dispel the notion that everything has calmed down."

The second episode sharpened that focus considerably. Against the backdrop of a visit to Minsk by U.S. Special Envoy John Cole, the discussion — with European Parliament Vice President Martin Hojsík, MEP Dainius Žalimas, and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's chief adviser Franak Viačorka — turned to the limits of engagement with the Lukashenko regime, the diverging approaches of Washington and Brussels, and the significance of the International Criminal Court's newly opened investigation into crimes committed by the Belarusian regime against its own people. Viačorka captured the stakes of the ICC investigation plainly: "this also sends a strong signal to the Belarusian nomenclature and officials participating in Lukashenko's crimes — that all crimes will be documented and, in time, they will be punished." MEP Žalimas put the longer arc of international justice into perspective: "international justice may seem delayed, may come very late — but it comes inevitably in almost all cases."

Alongside "Agora," Liubakova is writing a book in English about the people at the center of Belarus's 2020 uprising and its aftermath. Paris, she says, is where she has finally been able to sit down and write.