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NL The tragic fate of Nikolai Statkevich
Nikolay Statkevich is chairman of the Belarus-banned social democratic party Narodnaya Gromada. A few months before the falsified 2020 presidential elections, the politician was kidnapped in broad daylight by the KGB secret service. After a year and a half in pre-trial detention, he was sentenced to 14 years in a monster trial against several opposition members in December 2021. Initially, [...]
Protests after proposed renewed 'foreign agents' law in Georgia
Photo: Georgian flags in the capital Tbilisi. Source. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in recent days to protest against the reintroduction of a notorious 'foreign agents' law. The law was proposed on 3 April by Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and is a slightly modified version of a law [...]
Fraudulent elections in Belarus: continued support for opposition and political prisoners essential
"A senseless farce" is how Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya described the recent local and parliamentary elections in her country. Only parties swearing allegiance to dictator Lukashenka were allowed to run, the opposition in exile called for a boycott. They were the first elections since the highly controversial 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko ran for a sixth term [...]
24 February: Together in action for Ukraine
Last Saturday, 24 February, hundreds of people gathered on Dam Square in Amsterdam to express their support for Ukraine, two years after the large-scale Russian invasion. As in other cities in the Netherlands, people gathered in large numbers - despite the rain - to show that we support Ukraine [...]
Visit Georgia and fact-finding mission
Photo: Georgian flags in the old centre of the capital Tbilisi - Flickr In late October, a seven-member delegation from the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity (EFDS) visited Georgia. The group included MPs from several European countries and representatives of political foundations. The focus was mainly on foreign [...]
"Super election year 2024": what is the FMS looking forward to?
Photo: Mohamed Hassan/ PxHere 2024 is also being called the election year by political analysts. People in more than 70 countries will be allowed to cast their votes which amounts to 3.7 billion people, almost half of the total world population. Just because elections are organised does not automatically mean they are democratic. In some elections, the winner is [...]
Stalemate Ukraine highlights undiminished importance of support
Photo: Demonstration in support of Ukraine in February 2022 - Wikimedia Commons Almost two years ago, Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. With support for Ukraine no longer a foregone conclusion, a good outcome of the war is increasingly uncertain. The fighting lingers on and the risk of another frozen conflict lies [...]
The Belarusian revolution did not end in 2020 - it is still ongoing
Photo: Protest rally against Lukashenko, 30 August 2020. Minsk, Belarus (WikiMedia Commons) August 2020. More than three years have passed since the massive protests in Belarus following the dubious presidential election won by Alexander Lukashenka. Tens of thousands questioning the election results took to the streets. These mass protests were then harshly [...]
Frozen Russian assets: where are they and what should be done with them?
Ever since the first months of the war in Ukraine, many, including Ukrainian authorities, have advocated the use of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine's reconstruction. In practice, however, this wish has been hard to realise, including in the Netherlands. Indeed, freezing Russian assets is anything but smooth, and deploying [...]
'Public speaking and negotiations' training in Armenia
A training for young people on 'public speaking' and 'negotiations' took place on Saturday 21 October in Yeghegnazdor, Armenia. This training is part of a series of five trainings in different Armenian provinces, organised by the SD Platform Armenia with the support of FMS. Engaging a new and [...]
