Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya | |
---|---|
Святлана Ціханоўская | |
United Transitional Cabinet | |
Assumed office 9 August 2022 | |
President | Herself |
Preceded by | Office established |
Personal details | |
Born | Sviatlana Heorhiyeuna Pilipchuk 11 September 1982 Mikashevichy, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union |
Political party | Independent |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Education | Mozyr State Pedagogical University |
Website | tsikhanouskaya |
Sviatlana Hieorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya[a] (née Pilipchuk;[b] born 11 September 1982) is a Belarusian political activist. After standing as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election against the president Alexander Lukashenko, she has led the political opposition to his authoritarian rule through an oppositional government operating from Lithuania and Poland.
Tsikhanouskaya became an opposition leader after her husband,
Since fleeing to Lithuania, Tsikhanouskaya has established an oppositional government. She established the
Early life
Sviatlana Pilipchuk was born on 11 September 1982, in the village of Mikashevichy,[1] to Hieorhij Ivanavič and Valancina Mikałajeuna Pilipčuk.[2] Her father was a driver at a concrete factory, and her mother was a cafeteria cook. She grew up in a Soviet prefabricated apartment building, where she spent much of her time reading.[1] Among her books were some from the United States, which she read to learn English and learn about the world outside of Belarus.[3]
Pilipchuk's village was near the
Pilipchuk attended
2020 Belarusian presidential election
Background and building a campaign
In 2019, Tsikhanouskaya's husband Tsikhanouski started a YouTube channel, "A Country for Life", in which he interviewed people and challenged the rule of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.[1] He became a prominent opposition leader through his YouTube and Telegram presence, as well as his organization of political protests. He moved to challenge Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, and he was subsequently arrested for his protest activity days before the filing deadline.[3][8]: 122–123 Tsikhanouskaya attempted to file for her husband by proxy but was rejected. In response, she filed for her own candidacy.[8]: 123 She later said that she did this solely as a show of support for her husband.[1] Tsikhanouskaya registered as an Independent candidate on 14 July 2020.[9]
Tsikhanouskaya initially had no interest in building a campaign. When her husband was released, he continued the campaign even though it was her name on the paperwork. He sometimes brought a life-size cutout of Tsikhanouskaya when he campaigned. She easily acquired the 100,000 signatures that were needed to run—a high limit that was expected to block opposition candidates from running.[3] Her candidacy was confirmed on 19 July 2020. From this day, she traveled across Belarus to hold campaign events.[10]
Tsikhanouski was arrested a second time, accused of assaulting a police officer in an incident that was later found to be staged.[3] With her husband imprisoned, Tsikhanouskaya became the main opposition candidate against Lukashenko in the presidential election,[8]: 123 making her a rare example of an opposition leader in an autocratic nation that arose through a political campaign.[8]: 120 She aligned with Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of opposition candidate Valery Tsepkalo who had fled the country, and Maria Kalesnikava, the campaign manager of opposition candidate Viktar Babaryka, who was arrested.[8]: 123
2020 was a time of political vulnerability for Lukashenko. He had grown more unpopular because of his mishandling of economic issues and his dismissive response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Belarus.[1][8]: 122 Most opposition candidates were removed from the race, either through arrest or disqualification.[8]: 123 Lukashenko allowed Tsikhanouskaya's candidacy, believing that as a woman she was not a significant political threat. He instead belittled her for being a female political candidate, using sexist language.[1][8]: 119 Tsikhanouskaya leaned into the feminine aspects of her candidacy, emphasizing that she was a mother, and her gender may have indicated to voters that she was less likely to seek power for herself.[1][8]: 124
Instead of running as a
Campaigning
Though she was running as an independent candidate, Tsikhanouskaya attracted support from across the spectrum of Belarus's political opposition.
During the presidential campaign, Tsikhanouskaya was repeatedly threatened,[15] recounting threatening phone calls from unknown numbers, which said, "We will put you behind bars and place your children in an orphanage".[6] Tsikhanouskaya said she then decided to persevere in her campaign, saying that "there must be a symbol of freedom".[6] Her campaign began as Amnesty International condemned Belarus's discriminatory treatment of women opposition activists, including threats of sexual violence[16] and threats by authorities to take children away from opposition figures and send them to state-run orphanages.[16][17] Worried for the safety of her children, Tsikhanouskaya had them hidden abroad in Lithuania.[1]
Tsikhanouskaya said that she ran for president out of love, to free her husband from prison.[18] She ran on only three political issues: the release of political prisoners, constitutional limitations on the presidency, and new elections. Once these three things happened, she said, she would step down from the presidency.[3] To reform the constitution, she pledged to set a referendum on returning to the original draft of the 1994 Belarusian constitution, reinstating a limit of two terms for the president.[19][20] She also vowed to move away from the union treaty with Russia.[6] She said that her main goal was to establish free and fair elections. She viewed the election as illegitimate due to the government's refusal to register Lukashenko's main political opponents as candidates. She pledged to deliver a plan for transparent and accountable elections within six months of taking office.[21]
Tsikhanouskaya's economic platform emphasized increasing the importance of small and medium-sized businesses in the Belarusian economy. She planned to offer interest free loans to small and medium-sized businesses, cancel state inspections of private entities, and provide legal protection for foreign investors. She planned to allow profitable state owned enterprises to continue to operate, while requiring unprofitable state owned enterprises to take advice from outside professionals.[22]
Election day and departure from Belarus
The night before the election, police detained senior staffers from Tsikhanouskaya's campaign and she chose to go into hiding in Minsk, before re-emerging on election day at a polling station.[19] When the results were announced, Tsikhanouskaya officially received only ten percent of the vote. Poll workers were required to engage in electoral fraud to ensure Lukashenko's victory over Tsikhanouskaya,[8]: 125 and protests took place across Belarus in response.[4] According to election monitor Golos and independent observers, Tsikhanouskaya was the legitimate winner of the election.[23] After Belarusian state television released an exit poll showed Lukashenko winning by an overwhelming margin, Tsikhanouskaya said that she didn't trust that poll, saying, "I believe my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us".[24]
Tsikhanouskaya and her lawyer went to the Central Election Commission the following day, where they were confronted by armed guards, and Tsikhanouskaya was forced to meet with Lukashenko's enforcer Andrei Pavlyuchenko. She was given an ultimatum to either leave the country, or to go to prison and have her children taken.[3] They described to her in detail what life in prison would be like for her, where political prisoners were frequently tortured, and what life for her children would be like as wards of the state. She attempted to negotiate the release of her husband in exchange for ending her challenge and leaving the country. Her offer was refused, but instead she was able to negotiate the release of her campaign manager, Maria Moroz. Tsikhanouskaya and Moroz prepared to leave for Lithuania; Tsikhanouskaya collected her passport and her son's cochlear implant equipment, while Moroz arranged to have her own children escorted to Lithuania by her sister. The women also demanded that a Belarusian KGB agent escort them to the border in Moroz's car, to prevent the use of a car bomb.[1]
A video was released of Tsikhanouskaya conceding to Lukashenko and asking the protesters to stand down.[4] The stark change in demeanor and message led allies to say that the video had been coerced, with some going as far as to liken it to a hostage video.[25][26]
Exile
Establishing an opposition government-in-exile
Days after she left the country, Tsikhanouskaya declared herself the "leader of democratic Belarus".[3] To this effect, she announced the establishment of a Coordination Council to handle the transfer of power from Lukashenko.[29] Applications for membership in the council were open only to Belarusian authority figures, such as respected professionals, authors, or sportspeople.[30] Tsikhanouskaya considered herself to be an "interim-leader" of Belarus, but she has not claimed an entitlement to the presidency. She has indicated that she will not seek the presidency again, instead continuing her diplomatic work until fair elections can be held.[1]
Tsikhanouskaya appealed to the international community to recognise her as the winner, traveling to various European capitals and meeting with world leaders, including President
On 9 August 2022, at a conference held in
The Council of Europe, the European Union and the United States of America have established the formal cooperation with the structures of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.[42][43][44]
Russo-Ukrainian War
When the Russian invasion of Ukraine took place in 2022, Tsikhanouskaya sought to promote the anti-war movement in Belarus.[8]: 125 She has objected to the international framing of Belarus as merely a vassal state of Russia, alleging that it downplays the severity of Lukashenko's rule.[23] Regarding Lukashenko's support of the invasion, Tsikhanouskaya accused him of treason.[45]
Following Belarus's entry into the war, Tsikhanouskaya and her supporters developed the Pieramoha Plan (Victory Plan), a strategy involving underground dissidents in Belarus, engaging in information sharing and sabotage. She has said that the dissidents must wait until "the right moment", when instability allows for a change in power.[46]
Tsikhanouskaya argues that the existence of a dictatorship in Belarus threatens the safety not only of Ukraine, but of the other states bordering Belarus: Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, as Belarus has been used by Russia to attack neighboring countries like Ukraine. She supports continued political and economic involvement by the West in support of Ukraine's efforts in the Russo-Ukrainian War. She has warned of war fatigue stymieing Western support for Ukraine and Belarusian dissidents.[31]
Awards
Tsikhanouskaya was on the 2020 list of the BBC's
In 2021, she was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize by President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda and multiple Norwegian members of parliament.[52][53][54]
See also
- 2020–2021 Belarusian protests
- Belarusian partisan movement (2020–present)
- Belarusian opposition
- New Belarus passport project
Notes
- Łacinka and Svetlana Georgyevna Tikhanovskaya from Russian
- ^ Belarusian: Святлана Георгіеўна Ціханоўская, née Піліпчук, pronounced [sʲvʲaˈtlana ɣʲɛˈɔrɣʲijɛwna t͡sʲixaˈnɔwskaja], née [pʲilʲipˈt͡ʂuk]; Russian: Светлана Георгиевна Тихановская, née Пилипчук, romanized: Svetlana Georgiyevna Tikhanovskaya, née Pilipchuk, pronounced [svʲɪˈtlanə ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪ(j)ɪvnə tʲɪxɐˈnofskəjə], née [pʲɪlʲɪpˈtɕuk]
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External links
- Official website
- Nemtsova, A. (8 January 2023), "The Irreversible Change in Belarus", The Atlantic, retrieved 9 January 2023