BFF Talks: Conversations with Belarus Freedom Forum

How to Survive Russia: Discussing Defense Approaches for the Region with Dr. Sandor Fabian.

On February 24th, Russia invaded Ukraine. Again. In the seven weeks since the first rockets hit Kiyv, we have seen Russian troops committing acts of unspeakable and senseless brutality. Targeted shelling of residential areas, use of cluster munitions, deliberate bombings of bomb shelters with children inside [https://www.npr.org/2022/03/25/1088735408/mariupol-drama-theater-deaths#:~:text=A%20Russian%20airstrike%20may%20have,in%20a%20theater%2C%20officials%20say&text=2022%20Maxar%20Technologies-,A%20satellite%20image%20shows%20the%20destruction%20wrought%20on%20the%20theater,have%20died%20in%20the%20bombing.] – the civilian death toll keeps climbing. The latest episode in this chronicle of war crimes is the massacre in the city of Bucha [https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/world/2022/04/04/bucha-ukraine-killing/7267827001/] where Russian troops executed more than 300 civilians. But with it, we have also witnessed remarkable resilience of Ukrainian Armed Forces and ordinary Ukrainians in the face of overwhelming numbers. Most of the experts I know expected Ukraine to fall within weeks, but it has been almost two months, and the Ukrainians are firmly holding their own. Clearly, Ukraine has chosen the correct way to defend against Russia. This episode’s guest, Dr. Sandor Fabian of West Point’s Modern War institute (and a veteran of Hungarian Special Forces), argues that this kind of asymmetric, resistance-focused approach to Russian conventional strength is the only way in which small countries can defeat Russia militarily. Ukraine not only offers a good demonstration of this, but also suggests that if its regional neighbors commit its military doctrines to this kind of warfare, they will perform even better against a conventional invasion at a smaller cost than maintaining large conventional military usually requires. You can find out more about Dr. Fabian and his work here: https://sandorfabian.com/ [https://sandorfabian.com/] I particularly recommend the article “The Russian hybrid warfare strategy – neither Russian nor strategy [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14751798.2019.1640424?journalCode=cdan20]”: List of charity organizations helping Ukraine: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-refugees-donations-charity/ [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-refugees-donations-charity/] The episode was recorded on March 28th, 2022

Eternity and Dictators: Discussing Protests in Belarus with Prof. Timothy Snyder

Eastern Europe is full of instructive examples of how democracy should not be taken for granted. There is always a benevolent autocrat who claims to know better, a president who wants to stay for just one more term, oligarchs with their hand politics. Sometimes people push back against it hard enough to make a difference. Ukraine is a great example of this: it had two revolutions against the corrupt government in 2005 and 2013. There is also Russia and its Bolotnaya Square protests in 2011, and, more recently - the 2020 protest movement in Belarus which has reinvigorated its democratic opposition to the country's dictator Aliaksandar Lukashenka. Despite this democratic show of force, overcoming autocrats is more difficult than embracing them. Putin isn't going anywhere, neither are the Ukrainian oligarchs, and Belarus' Lukahsenka has been in power since 1994 – the longest-ruling autocrat in the post-Soviet space. Why is it so difficult to get back on the democratic track for these countries? To discuss the post-Soviet struggle for democracy, I sat down with Dr. Timothy Snyder, a renowned Yale professor who specializes in the history of Eastern European Authoritarianism. In his studies, Dr. Snyder came up with the concept of politics of eternity - a societal worldview where future holds no significant developments but is rather a cycle of repetition of whatever has or is happening. Things happen regardless of what we do, and so individuals lose all agency and the sense of responsibility for the future. What replaces it is tribalism, eternal victimhood and constant imaginary threat we are mobilized to fight. In my conversation with Professor Snyder, this concept turned out to be a great tool in explaining the challenges for democracy in Belarus and Russia, why we should pay attention to it, and what can be done to help it flourish.

Podcast Trailer

An introduction to BFF Talks and the organization behind it, a primer on the latest history of democracy in Belarus, and a couple of thoughts on why Belarus makes the news only when something weird happens there.