Martin Dimitrov
Contributions
-
Meet Anastasia Sechina from Russia
Editor Anastasia Sechina speaks about the meaning and difficulties of being an independent journalist in Russia. Anastasia, a reporter and editor based in the city of Perm, shares how she has been fighting – and surviving – in the inhospitable Russian media tundra for almost 20 years now, and why she still does it. “Small, local media can become a focal point for civic activism on a particular topic, it can inspire and educate citizens to join together to change something,” she says.
-
Meet Liza Simbirskaya from Russia
How to normalize being gay in Russia? Screenwriter Liza Simbirskaya talks about her approach of gently challenging homophobic narratives through art. “I am trying to live by the samurai wisdom, or maybe it's just a proverb, “do what you must and come what may,” says Russian screenwriter Liza Simbirskaya about her attitude towards life. In the past few years, the up-and-coming screenwriter has made her name in the non-mainstream art and cinema circles of Moscow with her ambitious, socially oriented takes on issues often ignored by the predominantly conservative society of Russia.
-
Meet Tinatin Khidasheli from Georgia
I am not simply a conscious liberal,” says Tinatin Khidasheli, Georgian human rights lawyer, academic, politician, and an ex-Defence minister – the first female one her country and the Caucasus has seen. “I am an instinctive liberal – it is not just from reading books, it happened to me naturally.” Currently, she heads a Georgian think-thank, Civic IDEA, fighting the soviet legacy in Georgia, confronting Russian propaganda, and advocating for a sound defence and security policy for Georgia while also teaching in academia.
-
Defending what is right
Georgian politician and civic mover and shaker Tinatin Khidasheli has been immersed in the fight for justice for 30 years – and is ready for the next 30 to come. Tinatin is the type of person for whom the use of “fighter” in the expression “freedom fighter” is well deserved. In her three decades of civic activism, she has gone from clashing with the Soviet-era militsiya (police) in the final year before the fall of the USSR to defending in court the basic rights of those ostracised by the new Georgian state, from advocating the need for EU integration of her country in Parliament, to reforming its military.
