Aliaksei Paluyan is a Belarusian director and scriptwriter. When the people of Belarus took to the streets in the late summer of 2020 to protest against the blatant electoral fraud under ruler Alexander Lukashenko, Aliaksei was there with his camera crew. After the protests were violently put down, he fled back to Germany, where he had studied. For Aliaksei, returning to his home country is currently unthinkable – he faces imprisonment and persecution. At least six political prisoners have died since the fraudulent elections took place, and more than 1400 Belarusians are still considered political prisoners.

In Russia, too, repression has become almost universal. Publicly speaking out against the war can lead to long prison sentences. Oleg Orlov, for example, was sentenced to 30 months in prison before being released in the August 2024 prisoner exchange. He was Chair of the Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and had been officially dissolved shortly before. Moreover, the death of Alexei Navalny in detention conditions that were at the very least detrimental to his health, and the draconian punishment of activists and members of the opposition as a whole, also shows the extent to which Russia is cracking down on dissent and independent voices.

Many Russians and Belarusians have had to flee abroad as a result of this repression. Activists from Russia have travelled to Georgia, Turkey or Central Asian countries, while those from Belarus have mainly gone to Poland and the Baltic states. But these courageous individuals have also fled to safety in Germany, often with the aim of using it as a base to fight for democracy and freedom of expression in their home countries. Their commitment is multifaceted. Bloggers, journalists and YouTubers help to foster diversity of opinion. Experts support the political decision-making process in Germany and in the EU with their analyses. Cultural professionals process the collective experiences of their generation through their work. And opposition activists look for ways to build a Russia and Belarus of the future.

Indeed, as the illegal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has once again made us bitterly aware, autocratic regimes are a direct threat to the peace, security and stability of our rules-based peaceful order in Europe. It is therefore in our own strategic interest to support efforts for democracy.

Since Robin Wagener, the Federal Government’s central point of contact for Belarusian and Russian democratic civil society abroad, took up his post at the Federal Foreign Office in the spring of 2023, he has established in-depth contact with the most important Russian and Belarusian figures in exile – including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and, after his release, Vladimir Kara-Murza. In addition to these important discussions, he has already organised several round tables with representatives of civil society in exile from Russia and Belarus. At the heart of these discussions is the question of how best to support people who have been forced to leave their homes in Russia or Belarus.

Initially, it was urgent to resolve issues relating to residence permits. Since then, the round tables have increasingly set their own points of focus. In the spring of 2024, for example, the Democratic Russia round table discussed the situation of women’s rights and gender roles in Russia. At the beginning of the year, the Belarus round table, which took place in the Federal Chancellery together with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, focused on the situation of Belarusian cultural professionals.

This brings us back to Aliaksei Paluyan and his film Courage. The dynamic filmmaker was also one of the sources of ideas for the cultural focus of the Belarus round table, which addressed the needs of civil society and discussed concrete projects. One project received a lot of attention at the Berlinale: Aliaksei and his fellow members of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy (BIFA) organised the presentation of a Belarusian film award there. This award, the Red Heather, not only put a spotlight on Belarusian films but also attracted potential cooperation partners and film sponsors. Exiled activists thus not only inspire people in Belarus with their films but also, through critical thinking, contribute to a democratic transformation.