Take to streets to overthrow Lukashenko during election, Belarus opposition leader urges
“I really want people to ... be on the streets and dismantle this regime,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said.
BRUSSELS — Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on people to take to the streets during the country’s election next month to topple the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Speaking at POLITICO’s P28 event in Brussels on Tuesday, Tsikhanouskaya said Lukashenko and strongmen like him were “not invincible.”
“I really want people to be ready to use a real moment of opportunity to be on the streets and dismantle this regime,” she said.
Belarusians head to the polls in January to elect a president. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and will almost certainly retain his job in a rigged vote that Tsikhanouskaya derides as a “farce.”
Tsikhanouskaya ran for president after her husband, a leading opposition candidate, was arrested and jailed during the 2020 election campaign.
The vote sparked mass protests that nearly caused Lukashenko’s downfall — but that were eventually crushed in a brutal Russia-backed campaign to suppress opponents.
Tsikhanouskaya fled Belarus shortly after and has since lived in exile in Lithuania.
“I believe in democracy, but you have to have courage to use all your tools to fight with dictators,” she said.
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