Andrei Sannikov: We Need To Speak Out About These Stories
- 11.11.2026, 13:52
Dictatorships can only be stopped through decisive measures.
In Berlin, as part of Freedom Week the exhibition “Conscience in Prison Garments” opened, dedicated to political prisoners from various countries.
One of its curators was Andrei Sannikov, coordinator of the “European Belarus” civic campaign and ombudsman of the World Congress for Freedom . He also took part in the Berlin Freedom Conference.
The website Charter97.org spoke with the opposition politician about the exhibition and the conference’s outcomes.
— Please tell us more about the concept behind the exhibition “Conscience in Prison Garments.” What exhibits were on display, and what are the stories of the political prisoners behind them?
— The idea came about when I was discussing the topic of political prisoners in various countries with the renowned artist and my colleague at the World Congress for Freedom, Sai from Myanmar. Sai’s father, who was arrested following the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, has been in prison for nearly six years. I told him about political prisoners in Belarus. And we decided that we shouldn’t just talk about this—we should shout about it.
There are more than a million political prisoners in the world. They are tortured, killed, and maimed, and all of this rarely attracts the attention of the global public, with the exception of a few well-known names. We decided to organize an exhibition of prison uniforms and the stories of political prisoners from different countries to present this issue specifically as a global problem, rather than a problem of a single country.
At the exhibition, we are displaying prison uniforms and personal belongings of political prisoners. We also screened videos featuring testimonies from former political prisoners, including Alena Lazarchik and Polina Sharendo-Panasyuk.
We primarily share the stories of female political prisoners. For example, the story of Polina Sharendo-Panasyuk, a Belarusian woman whose story is well known to us. Or the stories of Vietnamese women who, as it turned out, sew bags in prisons for major retail chains operating in Germany, such as Lidl and REWE. In total, the exhibition features ten countries and hundreds of stories of political prisoners.
— You participated in the Berlin Freedom Conference. What topics did you manage to raise, and what did you say about the situation in Belarus?
— I participated in a press conference marking the opening of the Berlin Freedom Conference, together with Marianne Birthler, who previously headed the agency responsible for managing the Stasi archives, Natalia Petrovich, a representative of the Serbian students who won the recent elections, former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the director of the Berlin Society for Freedom Burkhard Kikker, and my colleague Sai.
I spoke, of course, about political prisoners in Belarus, and about how the rise of dictatorships around the world can only be stopped through decisive measures. The appalling number of political prisoners worldwide is evidence that dictatorships feel they have complete impunity.
Freeing political prisoners and liberating countries from dictators are tasks of the same order. And they can only be resolved by increasing pressure on the criminals who have seized power in many countries around the world, without any leniency toward them.
I spent most of my time at the conference at an exhibition that generated a great deal of interest. You could say I served as a tour guide for politicians, Berlin officials, journalists, public figures, and human rights activists. I spent the entire day talking about what is happening to political prisoners around the world and, of course, in Belarus.
— Which conference participants did you manage to meet? What issues did you discuss, and were you able to agree on specific joint steps?
— On the eve of Berlin Freedom Week, a meeting of the steering committee of the World Congress for Freedom—of which I am the ombudsman—took place. It should be noted that Berlin Freedom Week is held precisely at the initiative of our Congress.
That’s why I meet with most of the conference participants much more often than once a year. They are opposition leaders from their respective countries, most of whom are forced to live in exile but continue to fight for the freedom of their homelands. I was delighted to meet with my longtime friend Markus Meckel, the last foreign minister of the GDR, who held that post in the country’s first and last freely elected government.
As for future plans, I can say that my colleague from Myanmar and I intend to continue working on our project, since the exhibition made a strong impression and many are interested in hosting it in their own countries.