Belarus 2020-2022: "Grand témoin" conference organized by the Inalco Foundation, February 9

Belarus, 2020-2022: the stakes of the current crisis for Europe

Conference-debate by Mr. Nicolas de Lacoste, French ambassador to Belarus in 2020-2021

Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 6pm at the Inalco auditorium (Paris 13) and live on YouTube.
Registration required for face-to-face or remote participation.

Since August 2020 and the start of protests against President Lukashenko's fraudulent re-election to a sixth term, Belarus has been undergoing a major political and geopolitical turning point.

The repression of protest has taken on hitherto unknown proportions, in a country nevertheless marked by authoritarianism since Alexander Lukashenko came to power in 1994. Western European countries have not recognized the results of the August 9, 2020 election and, in retaliation for the sanctions adopted, the Belarusian authorities have expelled several European ambassadors.

What are the geopolitical consequences of the Belarusian crisis, which adds to the tensions between Western countries and Russia, Belarus's tutelary power?

What room for maneuver do European countries have? Can economic sanctions achieve political results? What are the prospects for ending the crisis?

The speaker:
Nicolas de Lacoste is an alumnus of Inalco. He held several diplomatic posts, in Bucharest, Warsaw, Vienna, Prague and Moscow, before being appointed French ambassador to Minsk in 2020, when the events that led him to leave the country broke out. His analysis of the Belarusian crisis and its consequences, against a backdrop of deteriorating relations between the European Union and Russia, takes on all the more significance.

Nicolas de Lacoste's talk will be followed by exchanges with the audience.

Contacts: evenementiel@inalco.fr and julien.vercueil@inalco.fr