Svyatlana Tsikhanouska warned that after the Russo-Ukrainian war, the West could be content with freeing Ukraine from Russian influence and leave Belarus to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the closest ally of the leader of the authoritarian regime in Minsk, Alexander Lukashenko.
“Let’s do everything not to allow it,” appealed Cichanouská. “Time is running out and Lukashenko is selling our independence to Russia step by step,” she declared. “Whoever gives up first will lose this war,” she said. The regime has violence and weapons, but lacks the motivation of the opposition, she added.
Cichanouská in summer 2020 she ran for president in place of her imprisoned husband against the leader of the authoritarian regime Lukashenko. The authorities again declared him the winner of the election, which the opposition and the West consider to be rigged. An unprecedented wave of mass protests followed, but Lukashenko, with the support of Moscow, harshly suppressed and silenced all opposition in the country.
Cichanouská came to Poland from Lithuanian exile to the Belarusian festival and in Warsaw she led the meetings of the provisional government, which was formed by opposition politicians in exile. He is also supposed to negotiate with the Polish authorities about legalizing the stay of Belarusian emigrants and solving their other problems. The opposition leader is in Poland for the second time this year, but she has not yet managed to meet Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Cichanouská claimed that this was because there was no time, as the new Polish government had to deal with a lot of other problems on the domestic scene.
“Belarus is no longer in the spotlight and it’s not just Poland, because Poland is still at the forefront in terms of support for a free Belarus,” she said, appreciating that Poland’s restrictions on Minsk are meant to affect the movement of goods and not the movement of people, while Estonia has closed border for cars with Belarusian license plates.
“Sanctions should hit business, not ordinary people. Such gifts should not be given to a dictator. Discrimination against Belarusians is water to the mill of Lukashenko’s propaganda,” she concluded. According to her, it is all the more important to preserve Belsat TV broadcasting from Poland in Belarusian.
“In 2020, the approach was completely different. Today, they look at it differently. They see that the protests are not continuing and as if nothing is happening. But such an approach deprives Belarusians of motivation,” the opposition leader, who recently spoke in the US about the need for greater support for independent media, human rights defenders and other initiatives. “We are fighting for survival now and we don’t have the means to achieve big victories,” she admitted. According to her, democratic states should realize that aid to Belarus is not a handout, but an investment to Europe’s security, so they should not be late with this investment.
She also recalled the example of the Polish anti-communist Solidarity movement, which the regime suppressed by declaring martial law, but the Poles did not give up and eventually communism fell. “How much time did it take? So we can’t talk about the fact that we lost. We have to keep fighting,” she emphasized. “Our partners do not have the moral right (to give up the fight). How will Western politicians be able to look themselves in the eye after they give up the fight against Lukashenko? (…) I know what realistic politics is, but I want to believe in democracy,” she added with the fact that there is “repression as under Stalin” in Belarus.
Although Lukashenko has recently made conciliatory gestures, for example, he released several political prisoners or withdrew the army from the border with Ukraine, there have been fewer migrants trying to cross the border with Poland, but according to Cichanouská, this is just a game to appease the public. “If there is an order from Moscow, he will send the Russian army again (into Belarus to attack the neighboring country). He has no other way out. He has only (Russian President Vladimir) Putin left,” she said.
Cikhanouska considers the fact that, unlike Putin, no arrest warrant has been issued for Lukashenka, despite evidence of involvement in crimes against humanity, including the abduction of Ukrainian children, as evidence that international institutions are not functioning as they should. “The West lacks decisiveness towards Lukashenka’s regime,” she complained, adding that she last heard from her imprisoned husband on March 9 last year, and that the imprisoned opposition politician Maryja Kalesnikava and other regime prisoners have not made themselves known for more than a year.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
