[2] During Gorbachev’s Perestroika Grushevoy began to participate actively in the democratic national movement, the Belarusian Popular Front.

[4] In 1989 Grushevoy established a non-governmental charitable fund dedicated to helping Belarusian children affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe.

[4] After organising demonstrations in Minsk to mark the 11th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, arrest orders were issued for Grushevoy and his wife Irina.

The couple spent a year in exile in Germany before returning to Belarus when the charges were dropped - since no evidence of fraud could be found among the papers of the fund.

In 1999 he received an annual prize from the Rafto Foundation, a Norwegian non-profit and non-partisan organisation dedicated to the global promotion of human rights.

“ In the country most severely hit by the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Grushevoy has focused on environmental issues by emphasizing the victims' human rights.”[1]