Vlad Kobets

Guest Author

Vlad Kobets is the founder and Executive Director of iSANS, the International Strategic Action Network for Security (@iSANS_CEE). A longtime Belarusian civic pro-democracy activist and policy expert, he currently resides in exile in Warsaw. He took part in the anti-communist student underground movement in Soviet times. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, he was involved in the promotion of democratic changes in Belarus and development of Belarus’ partnerships with the EU and NATO. Vlad was forced to leave public service after Lukashenka’s state capture.

With the aim of resisting Belarus’ autocratic course, he became one of the founding leaders of Zubr, a pro-democracy and pro-European movement. Based on democratic resistance experience, Vlad created a manual for civic pro-democracy movements of post-Soviet countries and closely worked with activists from Ukraine and Georgia.

During the presidential elections of 2010, he chaired the electoral campaign for a pro-democratic candidate. During 2010 crackdown he was detained by Belarus’ KGB (which retained that moniker after the Soviet era) and later released on parole. He managed to secretly leave the country, and to continue his work in exile. Since 2014, considering Russia’s hostile actions towards Ukraine, Vlad initiated a number of projects on hybrid threats to the sovereignty of Belarus. In 2018, he founded iSANS.

In 2005, Vlad was awarded the Golden Medal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic for his personal contribution to the development of democracy and civil society in the Republic of Belarus.

In 2024, he graduated from George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Seminar in Irregular Warfare Hybrid Threats (SIWHT).

Vlad is also on LinkedIn.