International Director Irina Bogdanova in conversation with Richard Demarco and Zara Coombes.
Richard Demarco and Zara Coombes will interview Irina Bogdanova, Director of Free Belarus Now and sister of imprisoned Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, about how her personal tragedy became a global fight for political freedom.
On December 19th 2010 Presidential “elections” that took place in Belarus. Irina Bogdanova’s brother Andrei Sannikov, a former Deputy Foreign Minister, was the most credible Presidential candidate in that race. But he did not win, the election results were rigged. The incumbent dictator Alexander Lukashenko remained in power. Andrei, his wife Iryna Khalip, an investigative journalist, and over 30,000 Belarusian citizens took to the streets in peaceful protest on election night. Violent mass arrests followed. Andrei is still in custody.
Since that day his sister, Irina has lived in a world where words like, disappearance, KGB, and Torture are in every day use. Irina founded the Free Belarus Now movement to fight for every political prisoner Belarus, and to fight for free and fair elections in Belarus. She now speaks to politicians from around the world, working with other NGO’s to coordinate the Belarusian peoples fighting for freedom.
