Belarusian human rights activist and the politician who ran in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election as the main opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has talked to Sven Lilienström, founder of the Faces of Democracy initiative, about democracy in Belarus, “Europe’s last dictator” and the question of which price she is prepared to pay to stop Lukashenko.
The 38-year-old ran against long-term authoritarian strongman Alexander Lukashenko after her husband, 42-year-old blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski, was detained months earlier as a “political prisoner”. Tsikhanouskaya officially lost the election, which was widely considered rigged, and has been living, tightly guarded, in exile in Lithuania ever since. Her husband, who is still being detained, faces up to 15 years in prison.
She told the interview that “democracy is about participation in the first place” and that she is “part of the national upheaval” in Belarus.
Talking about Lukashenko, Tsikhanouskaya said that “his grip on power is more hysterical than firm. For more than ten months he did not manage to suppress the popular protests. The repressions are raging and hitting new lows every day.” ” His point of no-return has passed; he has no future in Belarus. People have decided against him, and he will have to go”, the opposition activist added.
About how far would she go to stop the “Lukashenko dictatorship” and what price she is willing to pay, read more here.