'Belarus is a difficult place to understand'Michael, what path first led you to Belarus?
About 17-18 years ago when I lived in Ukraine, I knew a lot of Belarusian students and journalists, and they all said to me that you need to go to Belarus to have a look at this crazy president we’ve got. This was in the late...

'A great opportunity for Belarusian journalists to promote their work outside Belarus'You have published several articles and books on Belarus, a country which often goes unnoticed even in the academic world. How did you start writing about Belarus?
It began with my study of the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. After making three trips to Ukraine...

'Belarus has a glorious and tragic history'Andrei, you work for Index on Censorship, a London-based freedom of expression organisation. You have also worked as a freelance journalist for various international media. What media have you worked for, and what did you learn from this experience?
I’ve written for...

'We have a new wave of fighting for freedom, for Europe'For the past two months, Pavel Sheremet has been in Kiev, covering the events on the Maidan with his editorial team from Belarus Partisan.
The ‘Belarus in Focus’ project coordinator speaks to Pavel shortly after he has returned from helping a Finnish TV team to film on the...