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Uladzimir Uladzimiravič Mackievič (also Uladzimir Matskevich; Belarusian: Уладзімір Уладзіміравіч Мацкевіч; Vladimir Vladimirovich Matskevich, Russian: Владимир Владимирович Мацкевич; born 14 May 1956, Cheremkhovo, Irkutsk Oblast, RSFSR, USSR) is a Belarusian philosopher (methodologist), social and political activist. He was arrested on 4 August 2021 by the Belarusian authorities. Human rights organizations declared him a political prisoner.[1]
In the late 1980s, he lived in Latvia and participated in perestroika there.[2] In 1994, he returned to Belarus.[2] In 1990s, Mackievič participated in different electoral campaigns as a candidate and as a political technologist.[2] He also consulted 3 parties that merged into the United Civic Party.[2]Charter 97 was also formed with his participation.[2] Mackievič is a longtime critic of Alexander Lukashenko, in 2011 he characterized the political situation as a "personalist dictatorship that established martial law".[2] He supported the protests after 2020 presidential election and called Lukashenko the "illegitimate president".[5] In February 2021, Mackievič welcomed the appearance of the recently published strategy of the joint opposition but criticized much of its content.[6]
In 1994 and 1996, Mackievič participated in the development of two projects of educational reform by request of the Ministry of education of Belarus, but these projects weren't implemented.[2] In 2007, Mackievič participated in the creation of EuroBelarus [be] NGO which is a member of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum.[7] He also founded and led the Humanitarian Technologies Agency (Russian: Агентство гуманитарных технологий).[3] Mackievič together with a sociologist Tatsiana Vadalazhskaya created the "Flying university" (Russian: Летучий университет) which focused on the development of critical thinking.[8]
He was detained on 4 August 2021.[1] Tatsiana Vadalazhskaya and several other activists related to him were detained on the same day.[1] On 6 August, 8 Belarusian human rights organizations declared him a political prisoner in a joint statement.[1] He was charged with "organizing of actions that grossly violate public order" under article 342 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.[9]
On 4 February 2022, Mackievič declared a hunger strike demanding to change the preventive measure to a recognizance not to leave, complete the investigation and set a date for the trial.[10] He also threatened to start a dry hunger strike (refusal to take food and water) on February 15.[10] He stopped his hunger strike on the eve of 16 February after he was visited by the interrogator.[11]
