euro|topics - Benjamin Quénelle

09/01/2009

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Quénelle, Benjamin

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Le Soir - Belgium | 11/04/2007

History is poisoning relations between Moscow and its neighbours

The Museum of Auschwitz has just postponed the opening of an exhibition on the role of the Red Army in the liberation of this death camp. "At the heart of the quarrel is the identity of several groups of prisoners killed by the Nazis", explains Benjamin Quénelle. Many came from annexed parts of the USSR resulting from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which, in 1939, had fixed the division of territory in central and northern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. "When they were taken prisoner on the former Polish territory of the USSR, were these people still Polish, or already Soviet ? In the eyes of Moscow, they were Soviet citizens. For the museum officials they were Polish, Lithuanian, etc. ... These debates are occurring just as the situation between the two countries [Russia and Poland] is particularly fraught. ... Relations are bad and the slightest incident risks being blown well out of proportion. And as is often the case in relations between Russia and its former satellite countries, it is history, more than anything else, that continues to haunt it. "

Le Soir - Belgium | 30/03/2007

Free Theatre defies Belarussian dictatorship

Benjamin Quénelle, correspondent with the Moscow daily focuses on the Free Theatre in Minsk. "In Europe, theatres and festivals open all doors to them but when the actors of Free Theatre go home to Belarus, they have to perform in secret: during the winter in apartments and during the summer in the woods. Such is the life of independent artists under the regime of President Alexander Loukachenko, described as the last European dictator by Washington and Brussels. 'Like every dictatorship, this regime wants to control and impose popular culture. We offer an alternative... Our mission is to let people discover freedom', says Natalia Koliada, the founder and energetic director of Free Theatre with her husband, the playwright Nikolaï Khazeline. ... Belarus is a poor country but a stable country. Hence the real popularity of a regime upheld by the press which is reduced to a propaganda tool. And culture is no exception."

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