Sacha Filipenko, a Belarusian dissident in exile

When he sees young Ukrainians resisting the Russian oppressors, Sacha Filipenko cannot help but think back to the uprisings of the population against the power in place in his country, Belarus. And, irremediably, he finds himself plunged into the nightmare of the news. “Every day I wanna wake up the next day and see the war is over“, says the dissident author, who had to take refuge after the start of the war.

“Today it is important to say that the Russian language is not the property of the Russian state. It is a language that also belongs to Belarus and Ukraine“, continues this Russian speaker who bears a Ukrainian surname and whose mother is Russian.

Second Belarusian author to be translated during his lifetime, read all over the world, his books are banned from sale in his country and even banned from the national library.