Women Leaders of the Free World: My Latest Hot Type Column in Byline
In my recent Hot Type column for Byline Supplement, I turn a spotlight on the real leaders of the free world — the women of Eastern Europe
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“The real leaders of the Free World are from Eastern Europe and the most notable of them are women. But they don't get the attention they deserve as mainstream news media are so easily distracted by Russian information warfare… The world's press should pay close attention to what these remarkable women say and do. In them, we see the best of the democratic spirit. Unfortunately, news media give blanket coverage to incompetent and foolish men. All of us are the poorer for it.”—Dr. Michael MacKay
“Why are we not seeing these brave women in the news every day? Why can’t their faces appear below dozens of headlines? In a clickbait world, what we click makes an imprint on our psyche, and the political technologists of Russia know this. They’ve been waging psychological warfare on dozens of democratic nations for a decade, using repetition and frequency of images and pro-Russian storytelling.”—me in Byline Supplement
While interviewing Dr Michael MacKay for a recent Bette event, one of my core journalistic beliefs manifested: every story leads to a story.
During our post-interview debrief, MacKay told me: “You should do a report on the women leaders of Eastern Europe. They’re the real leaders of the free world.”
So I set out to do just that — investigating the women in power and those who are leading opposition movements to the pro-Russian autocrats who snatched power from the people in their countries.
Here is that report:
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The Byline team ran this column without a paywall, and I am cross-posting it here. For the full experience, please read it out Byline Supplement, which includes photos of each woman leaders mentioned.
Here is the report focusing on some truly brave and iconic women:
Hot Type: The Real Leaders of the Free World Are Women
Heidi Siegmund Cuda on the remarkable women leaders of Eastern Europe, who are a crucial counterweight to the media's obsession with the ‘strongmen’ Trump and Putin
I was an investigative reporter in broadcast journalism when Donald Trump landed on my radar in 2006 while I was interviewing the victims of a pyramid scheme. Lured in by get-rich-quick videos featuring Trump, some told me they’d spent their entire life savings on a video phone company that turned out to be bad business.
So when I realized Trump had become a serious contender for US President in 2016, I had already investigated him and unearthed a long history of bad business dealings.
By then I was untethered from corporate media, and could use my skillset as an independent investigative reporter to warn the public. I felt that I had a duty to warn. And more than his long history of bankruptcies and fraud, I warned people about his continual assaults on women — not just the lawsuits filed against him for sexual assault — but how he deployed the vocabulary of misogyny to weaken women, to throw us off our game, and, of course, his main target at that time was always Hillary Clinton.
The morning after the 2016 election, when all the internet trolls from St. Petersburg took the day off, it was eerily quiet on Twitter. It was clear that America had been had.
The next thing I noticed was that Vladimir Putin’s face began to appear everywhere. Trump’s ascension to the highest office in America was a glorious public relations bonanza for Putin. While Clinton had called on the international community to investigate Putin’s election in 2011 for fraud, Trump had been made an honorary Russian Cossack.
He was later stripped of this honor, but the fix was in.
And for a decade, we’ve had to look at those smug faces day in and day out. No matter what is written about them, each time their bizarre mugs — Trump with his trademark hue and freezer-face Putin — appear under a headline, it’s a win for their branding, for reality TV fascism, and a loss for humanity.
In a conversation with geopolitical analyst Dr Michael MacKay, he told me about some fierce women leaders in Eastern Europe, and as I investigated them, I thought, why are we not seeing these brave women in the news every day? Why can’t their faces appear below dozens of headlines? In a clickbait world, what we click makes an imprint on our psyche, and the political technologists of Russia know this. They’ve been waging psychological warfare on dozens of democratic nations for a decade, using repetition and frequency of images and pro-Russian storytelling.
“Fascist Russia is engaged in a comprehensive war against the West,” MacKay told Byline Supplement. “The most important campaign is the invasion of Ukraine by the so-called ‘rashists’. But they are carrying out ‘divide and conquer’ active measures against every one of the world's democracies.
“The real leaders of the Free World are from Eastern Europe and the most notable of them are women. But they don't get the attention they deserve as mainstream news media are so easily distracted by Russian information warfare.”
Maia Sandu
Among these leaders is Maia Sandu, the President of Moldova; Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader in Belarus; Salome Zourabichvili, the former President of Georgia; and Kaja Kallas, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
“Sandu has successfully fought presidential and parliamentary elections to affirm a pro-Europe path for the Moldovan people,” explained MacKay. “President Sandu is up against formidable opposition: part of Moldova (so-called ‘Transnistria’) is occupied by fascist Russia; a Russia-backed oligarchy sponsors titushky rent-a-mobs and other active measures against democracy in Moldova; pro-Russia and anti-democracy factions in Romania militate against Moldovan independence.
“President Sandu deserves more support. But even though Moldova is an EU-candidate country, European politicians are weak and reactive in the backing they give to an outpost of democracy standing up against Russian fascism.”
It’s worth noting that Sandu lost a 2016 election against a pro-Russian proxy, only to return to run in 2020 and win.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
In Belarus, it’s more complicated, but it shouldn’t be, said MacKay.
“Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the de facto elected President of Belarus,” he said.
Tsikhanouskaya stood as the candidate in the 2020 presidential election against Alexander Lukashenko after her husband, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, who was the original challenger, was arrested. She now leads the opposition to authoritarian rule from Lithuania and Poland.
“Her victory was stolen by the usurper Lukashenko in 2020. Even though her husband remains a political prisoner of the Lukashenko regime, Tsikhanouskaya travels to every world capital that will receive her to build support for democracy in Belarus.
“Unfortunately, the reception she gets is disgraceful. She should be recognized as the leader of a government-in-exile and the white-red-white Belarus Freedom Flag should be displayed alongside other national flags. But Tsikhanouskaya is treated as an ‘opposition figure’ and met by minor officials when she should be welcomed by heads of state.”
Lithuania is among the countries who recognize Tsikhanouskaya as the legitimate head of state for Belarus.
Yulia Navalnaya
Another woman who ended up having to step in for her husband is Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison in 2024. Like Tsikhanouskaya, she, too, is standing her ground, while now carrying the opposition torch.
“I want to do anything possible to change this regime, to build out, to speak out, to speak about who’s Mr Putin, and I think it’s important to view these words and show them if they kill people, there are some other people who (are not) afraid, who stand on their places and continue to speak.”
Salome Zourabichvili
Yet another woman leader, Salome Zourabichvili, the former President of Georgia, had her position stolen by the pro-Russia ‘Georgian Dream’ party, according to MacKay, who claims Parliamentary elections in October 2024 were falsified in Georgia.
“An anti-democracy faction took power and is attempting to break Georgia away from its pro-Europe path,” he said. “Fascist Russia invaded and occupied two regions of Georgia, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali. Most Georgians remain pro-democracy and pro-independence and they've come out daily to protest the illegal usurpation of power by Georgian Dream.
“Salome Zourabichvili rallies her people. She appeals to regime security forces not to attack their compatriots. She advocates strenuously for the people of Georgia despite the risk she may become a political prisoner. But her heroic efforts are ignored by an indifferent West.”
Kaja Kallas
In addition to Sandu, Tsikhanouskaya, and Zourabichvili, another example of strong leadership is Kaja Kallas, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She's the second highest official of the European Commission, after Ursula von der Leyen — a current target of memetic warfare by Russia.
“A former Prime Minister of Estonia, Kallas is the first EU Foreign Minister to take seriously fascist Russia's genocidal war of aggression,” Mackay said. “She is forthright in the defence of the highest ideals of the European Union even though she operates under the restraints of the consensus rule. She understands the urgency of bringing Ukraine and Moldova into EU membership.”
Unfortunately, the American press in particular ignores Kallas, who promised last week there “will be no impunity” when Ukraine and its allies announced a special tribunal to judge Russian war crimes.
“Despite the fact she has profound insight into Russia's war, US news media prefer to have an echo chamber of ‘experts’ – talking heads who are charlatans and who have been giving misinformation since before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991,” MacKay opined.
There is no question that women, and the world, lost democratic ground when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 but lost the election. Kamala Harris’s loss in 2024 further sent the world reeling backwards into a new dark age.
“The world's press should pay close attention to what these remarkable women say and do,” said MacKay. “In them, we see the best of the democratic spirit. Unfortunately, news media give blanket coverage to incompetent and foolish men. All of us are the poorer for it.”
It’s important to always look further over the waves, beyond America, beyond the West, to see there are women, brave women, whose profiles should be amplified as a counterweight to endless images of reality TV ‘strongmen’. Even if it’s just to create role models for young girls, who may yet be inspired to grow up and save the world.
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Dr Michael MacKay, who has a doctorate in political philosophy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, has been engaged with Ukraine’s civil society since the renewal of independence — working as a university lecturer, the director of an Internet access project and an election observer.
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The above Hot Type column was originally published Monday, May 19, 2025, in Byline Supplement.
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I'm a familiar with all these remarkable women, but Kallas is my favorite. Her English is perfect, and she is incredibly knowledgeable about the Eastern European situation.