MELBOURNE, Australia — Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s most prominent opposition leader, tours the Western world, soliciting support for her government in exile as sanctions against Alexander Lukashenka, a man she describes as a “relic,” “fossil,” “lame duck” and “dictator” seem to have not made a dent in his presidential status.
Yet, Lukashenka, who has served as the country’s only leader since it separated from the Soviet Union in 1994, has been condemned by international rights groups for enabling a violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators after a questionable vote in which he was re-elected in 2020 and, more recently, in 2025, and providing passage for Russian troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
Tsikhanouskaya, a 43-year-old former stay-at-home mother of two, became prominent after her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, a blogger and YouTuber, was arrested after announcing he would run in Belarus’s presidential elections in 2020. Tsikhanouskaya decided to run in his place, as he sat in prison, on a platform of constitutional reform, free and fair elections and shorter presidential term limits, and she says she was able to do so because she was a woman and Lukashenka didn’t see her as a threat.
Tsikhanouskaya contends she won and is the legitimate president-elect and has set up a government in exile. She was sentenced in absentia by a court in Minsk to 15 years in prison of treason and found guilty of high treason, attempts to seize power and forming an “extremist” group in 2023.
Recognized by Lithuania as the legitimate head of state of Belarus, with Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, as her base, since 2020 Tsikhanouskaya has been building ties with Western democratic states, lobbying for the diplomatic recognition of her government, the release of political prisoners and support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.
On a trip to Australia in November, Tsikhanouskaya praised President Trump for facilitating the release of political prisoners in Belarus, including her husband, earlier this year, and she called on pro-democracy activists in the country to “stay underground, don’t sacrifice your freedom or even your life in vain, just don’t lose the energy, keep it deep inside and when the moment comes we will need all of you,” as well as for those in exile to become more active.
PassBlue followed her through part of her visit to Melbourne, as she also traveled to Sydney and Canberra, and caught up with her by phone on a flight she took between Warsaw and Vilnius, where she lives with her husband and children. According to her political adviser, Tsikhanouskaya’s political efforts receive most of their funding from the European Union and international foundations, as well as from private donations and crowdfunding. Her trip to Australia trip was financed by her office, the adviser said.
Tsikhanouskaya has not been inside Belarus since 2020, after she refused to concede defeat. “The world is forgetting what happened in 2020 and what is going on,” she said in the interview with PassBlue. “Lukashenka has managed to present a calm image of Belarus, without protestors on the streets, and we have to explain that it’s not because people support the dictatorship, it’s because of increasing tyranny and repression.”
Regarding the prospects of peace in Ukraine, she said: “I want the democratic world to do everything possible to be tough on Russia and help Ukrainians to defend every last piece of Ukraine.”
This interview has been edited for clarity and flow. Tsikhanouskaya uses the Belarusian spelling of Lukashenka rather than the Anglicized Lukashenko.
PASSBLUE: Australia is very out of the way and very far from Europe, so what was the purpose of your visit here?
SVIATLANA TSIKHANOUSKAYA: It is very important that we expand the geography of the countries that are aware of the situation in Belarus. We also want to strengthen Australia’s role as a partner of Belarusian democracy in the Indo-Pacific region. For these past five years, Australia always supported the European sanctions and imposed its own sanctions on Lukashenka’s regime, voting with the rest of the democratic world [against Russia’s invasion of] Ukraine. We also had practical proposals for the Australian government, like joining the international humanitarian fund for political prisoners and their families in Belarus. Also, maybe it would be possible to appoint an Australian special envoy for democratic Belarus as many countries do, not just working with the regime, but with the Belarusian democratic forces. We also had a proposal for the Australian parliament to launch a group of friends for democratic Belarus. We already have these groups in 24 parliaments, and annually we have interparliamentary meetings. We really want to show Belarusian people that we have allies beyond Europe and the United States. We wanted to highlight the fact that Australia protects and cares about Belarus and democratic principles.
PASSBLUE: What’s your strategy now to get more support for a democratic Belarus and where are you traveling?
Tsikhanouskaya: You understand that the attention span for different crises in the world is rather short and it’s the task of Belarusians and democratic forces and me specifically to keep Belarus high on the agenda. A free democratic Belarus is important for Belarusian people, but it’s also important for our European partners.
Everybody sees the war in Ukraine — people are dying, cities are ruined and good countries are concentrated on this war. Belarusians are also focused on this because on the battlefield of Ukraine the fate of many countries will be decided. But we encourage the world not to forget about the role of Belarus in this war. The Belarusian regime became an ally to [Russian President] Putin. However, Belarusian people are pro-European and pro-Ukrainian and our fight for democracy is very deeply connected to the security in Europe. If Belarusian people aren’t supported by the democratic world, Lukashenko and his cronies, these dictators, will be a threat to the NATO alliance as well.
The world is forgetting what happened in 2020 and what is going on. Lukashenko has managed to present a calm image of Belarus, without protestors on the streets, and we must explain that it’s not because people support the dictatorship, it’s because of increasing tyranny and repression. People can be arrested for anything: speaking the Belarusian language, singing a Ukrainian song, buying Christmas presents for children of political prisoners. People continue to resist underground in Belarus or in exile.
PASSBLUE: What is the state of play in human rights and the pro-democracy movement — is it worse than it has ever been, is it the same — how would you describe the current situation?
Tsikhanouskaya: The fight against the regime has taken place in Belarusian history several times. In the past, uprisings were not as big and led by the opposition. In 2020, it was a different type of uprising and it was massive. Political prisoners are now being treated more harshly. Before, most political prisoners were detained for one, two, three or a maximum of five years. So, in 2020 people started to be detained for 15, 20, 25 years in jail, just for participating in demonstrations, for free journalism or being human rights defenders. Now, political prisoners have no rights, they don’t have paper and pens in prison, they are deprived of food, mattresses and pillows. People are dying in prison and are constantly humiliated both physically and morally.
The repression is huge and invisible. You don’t know the boundaries or what you can and can’t say. For example, today you will be reading a newspaper, and the newspaper or an online outlet is declared extremist. Even if you somehow read a newspaper half a year ago, you can be accused of supporting rebels and extremists. Can you wear red socks with white? Or will you be declared an extremist because white and red are the colors of our [former] national flag. You are always stressed because you don’t know what is allowed and what is not allowed.
PASSBLUE: I noticed that you were carrying around a folder with the image of the jailed human rights defender Ales Bialiatski.
Tsikhanouskaya: I would carry a portrait of my husband when he was imprisoned, and after he was released, I decided to continue carrying a folder with portraits of political prisoners, some known, some unknown. Ales BialiatskI is one of our prominent citizens of Belarus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He is the leader of the biggest human rights defending center working in Belarus for 20 years. I really want the world to consider how is it that the democratic world doesn’t have enough instruments and power to release at least a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Of course, these portraits of political prisoners attract attention, and people ask why do you carry this portrait, who is he, and I tell them stories to give people more of an understanding of the situation in Belarus.
PASSBLUE: What is the situation for pro-democracy activists and Belarusians outside Belarus in Europe, and there are reports about foreign interference in Australia — do you think that Belarusians are safe overseas?
Tsikhanouskaya: Before talking about the problem of Belarusians, I want to tell you about how much the pro-democratic Belarusian forces have achieved in these past five years of our work. I want to underline that people inside the country continue to fight from underground. We as the democratic movement in exile have built alternative institutions of power. I want to remind people that we won the elections in 2020, and the world recognized me personally as the president-elect, the person who won elections but didn’t start in office.
Since 2020, at least half a million Belarusians have fled the country because of repression. People are facing a lot of challenges with documents, jobs, bank accounts and so on. Most Belarusians in exile are based in Lithuania and Poland, and we managed to help them to solve their problems with documents, but in some other countries there are difficulties.
Two years ago, the regime of Lukashenka forbade foreign embassies to renew passports. If your passport expires, you cannot return home because of repressions and you cannot renew your documents in the embassy, as is usually practiced. People are becoming stateless, with no valid documents, and you cannot get a residency permit because you don’t have documents and bank accounts. In Germany, there was an instruction that immigration bodies had to accept expired Belarusian documents as valid. We are looking for solutions. We proposed a systematic solution to this problem and started to give people their own biometric passports. People still receive threatening messages and are threatened through family members who still live in Belarus.
PASSBLUE: Do you think the conflict in Ukraine will end soon, given Trump’s urgency for President Volodymyr Zelenskyi to accept the most-recent US-Russia peace plan?
Tsikhanouskaya: We all want the end of the war, but the war won’t stop when the shooting is over. We all want the end of the war, but the end should be just and on the conditions of Ukraine. Because what we must do in the region is not only close the issue, but we must solve the problem, and the problem is the imperialistic ambitions of Russia. If we cut Ukraine into pieces like a cake and give some to Russia because they just wanted this, who will be next? If we give up on supporting Ukraine in the fight for their lands, it will only embolden dictators, and they will go further and further. I want the democratic world to do everything possible to be tough on Russia and help Ukrainians to defend every last piece of Ukraine.
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Clair MacDougall is an independent journalist and photographer who has reported throughout Africa on security and humanitarian crises. She holds an honor’s degree in political theory and a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. In February 2021, the International Center for Journalists awarded MacDougall for her article on the first official death of a UN peacekeeper from Covid-19, published jointly by PassBlue and The Daily Beast.
