Results of the work of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Office for the week of September 13-19

Support and mutual assistance

– The OST team, together with the Rabochy Rukh (eng. Workers’ Movement) and the Peramoga Plan initiatives, held a joint stream, talked about the latest news, and answered the most pressing questions. 

– The Spotlight of the Regions project has launched a youtube-program about arbitrariness in Belarusian regions and how to deal with it. In the first episode, the Office discussed the situation in Belarusian town Lida and paying salaries with coupons in the country. 

– The Office held a series of online masterclasses for volunteers on how to create their own media from scratch – today everyone can be an infoactivist. People can become a volunteer by filling out the form on the website.

– The Freedom Postcards initiative has launched a marathon of letters to political prisoners. This week they gave “freedom postcards” to everyone who sent a letter to a political prisoner.

– Anatoli Liabedzka, Tsikhanouskaya’s Representatives for the Constitutional Reform, in an interview with A Country to Live In spoke about the new Constitution, the Economic Forum in Karpacz, and the attitude towards judges and security officials.

International work

– Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya made a working visit to France. She had meetings with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (more), Macron's adviser Isabelle Dumont (more), Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo (more), ex-President of France Francois Hollande (more), and met with the Belarusian diaspora. The full schedule of the visit is published here. During the meetings with the French politicians, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya discussed assistance to journalists, the civil sector, economic reforms, and ways to put pressure on the regime. France has developed new scholarships for repressed students from Belarus.

– Together with her economic team, and entrepreneur, member of Babaryka’s HQ and the Coordinational Council Maksim Bagriatsou, Russian experts Sergei Guriev and Arkadiy Gontmakher, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya took part in the Belarusian-Russian online conference on ways to develop relations between Belarus and Russia. Ms. Tsikhanouskaya's speech can be viewed here. The full recording of the conference is here.

– After the conference, Ms. Tsikhanouskaya had a meeting with Sergei Guriev, discussed the reform projects of the Office, the EU Plan for a Democratic Belarus, and work with international organizations, such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank.

– The leader of democratic Belarus supported the #FreeViasna campaign launched by the International Federation for Human Rights, which is dedicated to the repressed Belarusian human rights defenders, including Ales Bialiatski, Valiantsin Stefanovich, Leanid Sudalenka, Uladzimir Labkovich, and others. 

– The head of the Cabinet of Representatives Valery Kavaleuski provided the Paris Bar Association with information about the regime's attacks on the independence of the Belarusian legal profession. At the meeting, they discussed how France can support lawyers from Belarus who have suffered from the repressions and have been deprived of their licenses, including within the framework of international organizations, including the UN.

– Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya joined the rally held in Paris by the Belarusians of France and thanked them for the great work done: more than 50 solidarity actions, including those joined by MEPs in Strasbourg, assistance with the allocation of scholarships for the repressed students, etc.

– Ms. Tsikhanouskaya, in interviews for media of France and other countries, told about the situation in Belarus: RFI, RSF, Ouest France, Emerging Europe, France 24 (one, two), Le Figaro, Liberation, Lejdd, France TV info, France-5 TV, TF1 TV, France Inter, Paris Match (France), Doorbraak (Belgium), The Sunday Times (Great Britain), AFP, CNA, RFE/RL.