Belarus has launched an unannounced inspection of the combat readiness of its troops. Visiting opposition leader Svjatlana Tsihanouskaja in Finland does not believe that the Belarusian army will join the war as Russia’s ally.
13.12. 20:27•Updated 13.12. 22:29
At the same time as the Belarusian opposition leader living in exile Svyatlana Tsihanouskaya visits Finland, Belarus checks the combat readiness of its troops.
The autocratic president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko gave the order to move the troops and test the various departments. In addition to last week’s military exercise, this has raised fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine from the territory of Belarus in the coming months.
Svyatlana Tsihanouskaya, the most visible opposition leader in Belarus, believes that it is a matter of intimidation.
– This is how citizens are kept on their toes and no attention is paid to the country’s internal problems. It would be political suicide for Lukashenko to send troops to Ukraine alongside Russia, says Tsihanouskaja in an interview with .
Tsihanouskaja is on a two-day visit to Finland, and she has been received almost like a head of state. Today Tsihanouskaja met the prime minister Sanna Marini (sd.) and tomorrow it’s the President of the Republic’s turn Sauli Niinistö.
“Belarus is at war, but the people are not”
Tsihanouskaja believes that people would flee the country and not agree to the front if Belarus really went to war visibly as Russia’s ally.
A US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in its most recent report (you go to another service) estimated in his latest report that the purpose would rather be to tie up Ukrainian forces at the border of Belarus.
In reality, Belarus is already participating in the war in Ukraine. It offered its territory to Russian aggression at the beginning of the war and still allows Russia to use its soil as missile launch pads. In addition, wounded Russian soldiers are treated on the Belarusian side.
Tsihanouskaja believes that the war will intensify even more.
– I believe that this will happen. The situation is unclear right now, but I don’t think Russia will give up, says Tsihanouskaja.
“Belarus must not be Putin’s consolation prize”
Tsihanouskaya is one Russian president Vladimir Putin and one of the most outspoken critics of the leader of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
He fled Belarus shortly after the 2020 presidential election, which was considered fraudulent. Now Tsihanouskaja fears that the situation in Belarus will be forgotten.
– We are the only country in Europe where the death penalty is still in use. Now it is being extended to include soldiers and government employees convicted of treason. This is a war between dictatorship and democracy, states Tsihanouskaja.
Belarus has almost 1,400 people imprisoned on political grounds, among them a human rights activist who received the Nobel Peace Prize this year Ales Byalyatsky. According to Tsihanouskaja, the number of political prisoners has doubled during the war.
In addition, all independent media have been declared illegal.
– Lukashenko can work in hiding now, because the focus is on the war. And of course the attention must be there. However, I am afraid that we will remain Putin’s “consolation prize”, says Tsihanouskaja.
According to Tsihanouskaja, the root cause is that Russia does not accept Ukraine and Belarus as independent states. Putin wants Ukraine to be a state similar to Belarus – that is, a dictatorship economically and politically dependent on Russia.
In exile since September 2020
Even before the 2020 elections, Tsihanouskaja was an almost unknown family mother and English teacher even in her home country. Tsihanouskaja’s man Sjarhei Tsihanouski instead, there was a well-known video blogger who was supposed to run for president in the fall 2020 election.
When her husband and the rest of the opposition leadership were arrested, before nominations could even begin, Tsihanouskaja became a presidential candidate herself. He gathered behind him a group opposed to Lukashenko.
However, Tsihanouskaja had to leave the country when Lukashenko declared himself the winner of the fraudulent elections and began to suppress the opposition movement.
Tsihanouskaja has not seen her husband for two years. A call to the prison has been arranged once.
– I get information once a week if he is alive, states Tsihanouskaja.
In 2020, Tsihanouskaja was awarded the EU Parliament’s Sakharov Prize, which is given annually in recognition of work done for human and fundamental rights.
Corrected at 22:29: The sentence “In reality, Russia is participating in the Ukrainian war already” corrected to the correct form “In reality, Belarus is participating in the Ukrainian war already”.