During her working visit to Cyprus, the Belarusian leader held a briefing for diplomats at the Polish Embassy. In her speech, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya noted that the Lukashenka regime is much more vulnerable than it seems.
The leader went on to call for supporting the democratic forces’ efforts to release political prisoners at the international level, as well as for resolving issues faced by Belarusians with legalization of stay abroad, mobility, and visa issuance.
Here are the highlights from Ms. Tsikhanouskaya’s speech:
📌 “The regime of Lukashenka is much more vulnerable than it seems. It is like a chair on three legs: money, repression, and Russia. If one leg falls, the whole chair collapses”.
📌 “I am confident that changes in Belarus would come before changes in Russia. In Belarus, there is no support for dictatorship. There is no support for Belarus’s participation in the war. Belarusians are a profoundly European nation, which fell victim to Russian imperial ambitions, similar to Ukraine”.
📌 “As we speak, thousands of political prisoners are behind bars. People in prisons are isolated and tortured, held in extremely dire conditions. At least five have already died”.
📌 “I ask you to support our call for the immediate release of all political prisoners. Demand access to them and insist that UN institutions start paying attention to this crisis. Without pressure and international attention, the regime will continue destroying our society and killing our people behind bars”.
