Mikalai Khalezin
[4] In 2005, Khalezin and his wife Natalia Koliada founded deliberately underground Belarus Free Theatre, and soon a stage director Uladzimir Shcherban joined them.As of December 2020, Khalezin was an executive director of the Creative Politics Hub and lobbied the imposition of sanctions against supporters and close associates of Lukashenko.[6] On 27 December 2020, Belarusian government newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya published an uncovered death threat to Khalezin and his wife ("We will definitely find you... and we will hang you, side-by-side").[6] In 2021, Khalezin continued to collaborate with the Belarusian leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya participating in her visit to the United States of America in July 2021.[9] Khalezin and Kaliada were both appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to theatre.