Exiled Belarusian opposition leader has a message for the world: Stand up to dictators

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is in Canada this telling anyone who will listen that democratic countries must be united in their opposition to dictators.

By dictators, she is referring to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose government imprisoned her husband and drove her into exile, and Lukashenko’s close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tsikhanouskaya challenged Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, a role she took over from her husband, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, who was arrested days after he announced his candidacy. 

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for decades, won in a landslide, sparking massive protests in the country. Tsikhanouskaya and her allies, as well as independent election monitors, maintain the election was rigged in Lukashenko’s favour. Several western countries, including Canada, have not recognized his victory.

Since then, Tsikhanouskaya has lived in exile in Lithuania, and has spent the last four years travelling the world, urging leaders to support the pro-democracy movement in Belarus and anti-Russian resistance in neighbouring Ukraine. 

She reiterated messages to political and military leaders this past week at the Halifax International Security Forum and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Montreal.

Tsikhanouskaya joined As It Happens host Nil Köksal on Monday. Here is part of their conversation. 

Was that the key message you were trying to get across [this weekend]? 

We fully support [the] Ukrainian fight for freedom, and I think that Ukrainians have to be given everything possible for them to win. 

Belarusian people … share 1,000 kilometres [of] border with Ukraine, and our fates are intertwined. So we want to make sure that Belarus will not be given as [a] consolation prize to Putin, that there should be demands from [the] democratic world that Russian troops have to be withdrawn not only from Ukraine, but also from Belarus, including nuclear weapons. 

In Ukraine, the Russians are fighting with missiles, with tanks. In Belarus, we call it creeping occupation. They interfere through the ally, Lukashenko, who is a dictator and who Belarusian people are opposing. They interfere into our military sphere, into our economy, our education processes. There is a process of Russification. They’re ruining our national identity. They want to ruin our country. 

That’s why we need supporters of our independency … and this can be done through weakening of Putin’s regime and through weakening of Lukashenko’s regime. 

When we look ahead to the incoming U.S. administration and what Donald Trump has said leading up to this point about how quickly he could end the war, end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, are you concerned … Belarus will be collateral damage? 

American help and assistance to Ukrainians is crucial for Ukrainians and for us Belarusians. And I want to believe that policy towards Ukraine and Belarus will remain the same … because we are fighting global evil. We are on the front lines.

When dictators see indecisiveness, they perceive it as weakness. And they really don’t respect the democratic world. They think that you are not united, you are not decisive, and it emboldens them. They are crossing red line after red line, challenging the democratic world, and thinking that they will stay unpunished. They feel this impunity. 

So [the] democratic world has to stay united and to show democracy has teeth. 

Dictators are bold. They make alliances. They unite to each other. And they think that they can ruin democratic society, they can poison democratic people with the narratives that: “Look, it’s not your wars. You don’t have to interfere. Just enjoy your comfortable life. “

But it’s not so, because they can knock [on] your doors.

You’ve used the word “consistency,” saying it’s important in terms of Canada’s support for your people and your country. Do you worry about a lack of consistency with the incoming [U.S.] administration being a reality? 

I think that when new leaders come to democratic countries, they think that they might educate dictators. “I’m the person who will change [the] dictator. You know, I will make him a wonderful offer, and it will change his policy.”

It will never happen. 

The policy should be: Dictators cannot be appeased. Dictators cannot be re-educated. Dictators can only be fought. 

Have you spoken to members of the incoming administration in the United States?

We have contacts in Trump’s team.

I doubt that Belarus exists in their orbit, so we have to explain what’s happening in Belarus, how Belarus and Ukraine [are] interconnected. 

When our uprising in Belarus happened back in 2020, it was Trump’s administration that imposed [the] first sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime.

So now we have to see what actions will follow after this new presidential election.

As you have all of these discussions — and you’ve been having them for years now, travelling around the world — is it frustrating?

My husband is in prison. My children haven’t seen him for four years. There are thousands of … people suffering behind the bars for politically motivated cases. 

Of course, I would like changes [to] happen faster. Of course, I want to see stronger leadership in the democratic countries. I also want, you know, decisive answers to challenges that the dictators cause. 

So we can’t find justice in Belarus. So let international institutions work. And I hope that in the International Criminal Court, special investigations will be launched against Lukashenko’s crimes. 

Inside your country, we’re seeing reports of a new crackdown, more than 1,600 — maybe even more than that — people who have been showing solidarity with Ukraine have been rounded up. Many have already been imprisoned. What does that signal to you about a new phase in your country of a crackdown? 

Every day people [are] being detained for wearing wrong colours, for singing Ukrainian and Belarusian songs, for speaking Belarusian language, for opposing the repressions, for solidarity. 

We feel these repressions everyday. It’s a signal for me that Lukashenko knows, this regime knows, that people are not giving up. 

They know that our movement, democratic movement, went underground [for] the moment because the fear is still too strong. But the regime didn’t manage through these repressions to change the minds of people; you know, to make them like this regime or trust this regime. 

They feel very weak. And this tyranny is their only weapon they have. 

The world will be watching Washington, obviously, in early January for the inauguration of the incoming president. Later that same month, in your country there is what is being billed as an election. You’ve called it something else. What do you want the world to know about what is set to happen in the new year in Belarus? 

Lukashenko’s going to have a ritual of appointing himself again as president, though he lost legitimacy back in 2020. 

We are not asking [people] to go to the streets because it will be more victims, more political prisoners. And it’s not the moment we are preparing for. 

For sure, [there] will be the moment of opportunity for Belarusian people to resist again … but we have to wait.

People want somehow to contribute to our fight, so we ask them, if you are forced to go to the polling station, [vote] against everybody. It will not change anything. Nobody’s going to count your votes. But still, it will be like your moral release. 

People who don’t want to vote, please don’t go. Because, again, it’s not about elections. 

People who live in exile … are going to have a huge campaign in all the countries where Belarusian diaspora [are] present just to highlight the situation in Belarus, highlight political prisoners, highlight these fraudulent elections just to be visible again.

I think that’s your husband’s photograph on your folder there. You carry that with you always?

I need this picture constantly with me because, you know, the fight for democracy is not an easy one. 

Sometimes I’m exhausted, and I don’t think where to take strength to continue. So it’s always like a reminder for me what I’m fighting for.