Belarus in Focus
- Date
- 26 May 2025
- Time
- 17:00 -19:00
- Location
- BG 3
- Room
- VOX-POP, ground floor
At 'Belarus in Focus,' the University of Amsterdam's Slavic Department, Study Association Radost, and the Dutch diplomatic representation in Minsk join forces to boost attention for the country, with short talks, film clips, and a panel discussion. Please join us and use the occasion to firm your grasp on Belarusian language, culture, literature, human rights, migration, and geopolitics — with help from diplomats, researchers, activists, and creative professionals who rank among the best-informed experts of and from the country. Audience members can engage in conversations with these experts in a concluding Q&A.
Speakers (biographies below):
René Kersten (Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belarus), Dasha Sl. (Belarusian activist), Kaspar Pucek (Research fellow, Clingendael Institute) Moderator: Eva Peek (Slavic scholar, NRC).
Programme Overview
- 17.00-17.15 Welcome by Professor Ellen Rutten (UvA Slavic Studies
- department) & opening by moderator Eva Peek (NRC Handelsblad)
- 17.15-17.30 Introductory talk on Belarus by René Kersten (Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belarus)
- 17.30-17.45 Short films by Tasha Arlova (artist/filmmaker), Artemij Vashkevich (Young European Ambassador, Council of Europe)
- 17.45-18.30 Panel discussion with René Kersten (Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Belarus), Kaspar Puck (research fellow, Clingendael Institute), Dasha Sl. (Belarusian activist)
- 17.30-19.00 Q&A, drinks
Eva Peek studied Slavic Studies, Literature, and History, and is an editor at the foreign department of NRC. She is one of the compilers of the book Dit volk heeft zijn god op aarde (2023), and the author of De Dood Ruikt naar Suikerspin: de oorlog in Oekraïne door de ogen van vijf vrouwen (2025).
René Kersten is a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He started his career in the Foreign Ministry as a desk officer in The Hague for Russia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine in 2014. From 2016 onwards, he worked as a political officer in Khartoum, Sudan and in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2020 he returned to The Hague to work as a senior advisor on the NATO east flank in the Security Policy Directorate of the Foreign Ministry. Since 2023, he is head of mission of the embassy office in Minsk. René Kersten is particularly interested in human rights, (geo)politics and Eastern Europe. He is an alumnus of the University of Amsterdam, Universiteit Utrecht and University College London and has degrees in political science, computer science and security studies, as well as minors in Russian language, mathematics and intelligence studies.
Dasha is a Belarusian living in the Netherlands already for 10 years. Back in Belarus she took active participation in opposition movement, working for Movement for Freedom (a human rights organisation founded by A. Milinkievich, 2006 presidential candidate); she was also involved in journalism and election observation. In the Netherlands Dasha worked for an NGO in the sphere of mass media freedom. Dasha is an active participant of the organised Belarusian diaspora and all these years she has been working on raising awareness about the situation in Belarus.
Kaspar Pucek is a Research Fellow within the Security Unit and the Russia & Eastern Europe Centre (CREEC) at the Clingendael Institute. His research focuses on the geopolitics, political economy, and politics of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as on Sino-Russian relations. Before coming to Clingendael, he was a Lecturer in International Studies and Russian and Eurasian Studies at Leiden and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Institutional Studies at HSE University (Higher School of Economics) in Moscow. Kaspar holds a Ph.D. in contemporary Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European history from Princeton University.
