Solitary confinement gives one ample time to think – to revisit decisions, question assumptions, and confront hard truths.
Locked away, facing a 20-year sentence for defying Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, I often pondered the 2020 presidential campaign, when thousands of my compatriots took to the streets to demand a free and fair election, one that could possibly topple our dictator.
Belarusians protested courageously, creatively, peacefully, and on a massive scale. There was enormous solidarity, and – for a moment – a sense of hope that this odious regime would finally collapse.
But hope is not a strategy, and five years of imprisonment helped me understand that courage alone cannot free Belarus from authoritarianism. What Belarus needs now is a pragmatic path to a democratic future.
In the end, the Lukashenko regime held onto power despite the mass protests, propped up by the sheer brutality of its security apparatus and outside help from Moscow.
