By Ā Charlotte Pence Bond
Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya conducted anĀ interviewĀ with The Guardian in which she pushed Belarusian citizens to keep opposing the tyrannical regime.Ā
The presidential election that took place in Belarus last year was disputed and many countries have recognized the allegation of serious election fraud with regard to the results after Alexander Lukashenko claimed that he had won.
āPeople were in a state of euphoria,ā Tsikhanouskaya said about the feeling in the country a year ago when over 100,000 people came out to protest. āWe also thought: look how many of us there are, thereās no chance the regime can remain in power. Probably we werenāt ready for this level of cruelty.ā
āIn the last year, heās become more cruel and harsh because he understands that heās lost the face of a strong leader,ā Tsikhanouskaya said of Lukashenko, who became president in 1994. āYes, heās in power. But itās due to violence. Not because of respect, nor love ā¦ He wonāt be able to force people to love him.āĀ
Tsikhanouskaya was pushed out of Belarus last year and now lives in Lithuania where she continues to attempt to get countries to oppose Lukashenko.
āIt was hurtful for us that attention toward Belarus has fallen after these images of these beautiful demonstrations disappeared,ā she said.Ā āBut then theĀ capture of the [Ryanair] airplaneĀ brought new attention and the EU followed with the appropriate sanctions. And now I hope that the US and the UK will also join these sectoral sanctions. Weāll see what their move will be.ā
āThe regime is trying to scare people who are active outside of Belarus,ā she said. āItās an attempt to scare everyone. To scare us, to beat us down, and to be honest it has an effect on a lot of people. Why deny that? But Belarusians understand you cannot scare people forever.āĀ Ā
āI think that people have put too much responsibility on me,ā she said. āPeople are forgetting that a year ago I was just a mother, not at all involved in politics. I have had to study a lot and Iām trying to do what I can, where I am ā¦ But the responsibility isnāt just on me, itās on all Belarusians.ā
She urged Belarusians not to return to their everyday lives, but to keep working with the opposition.
The opposition leaderās words come after Belarus briefly became the focus of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games after one of the Belarusian athletes sought assistance from Tokyo police in order to avoid going back to her country where she believed she would be in danger.Ā
Tsikhanouskaya pointed to the situation involving the athlete as proof that there is no room for any kind of dissent against Lukashenko in the country anymore.
As reported by The Daily Wire, Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she was taken off of the Olympic team after sheĀ criticizedĀ her coaches in a post on social media.
In an interview withĀ Reuters, Tsimanouskaya said that she had been informed that the command to send her back to Belarus had come from āhigh upā in the country.
On August 1, Polandās Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marcin Pryzdacz, said that Tsimanouskaya had been given a visa.
