Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with Hillary Clinton during the Munich Security Conference.
The meeting took place ahead of the panel discussion on democratic movements around the world. The politicians discussed the dire situation of Belarusian political prisoners against the backdrop of Alexei Navalny’s death. The Belarusian leader noted that hundreds of people are in critical condition and need immediate release. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya emphasized the need for active intervention by international agencies to gain access to political prisoners who have been held incommunicado for over a year.
Ms. Clinton and Ms. Tsikhanouskaya also discussed the Belarus–USA Strategic Dialogue and the upcoming appointment of a US special envoy for Belarus. Hillary Clinton emphasized the involvement of the Lukashenka regime in the displacement of Ukrainian children to Belarus and offered assistance in advancing accountability for the regime and its accomplices. Additionally, Ms. Clinton invited Ms. Tsikhanouskaya to participate in Clinton Global Initiative events and expressed readiness to highlight the Belarusian agenda in the United States and globally.
During the meeting, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya mentioned that she had a small surprise, a video chronicle of Ms. Clinton’s 1994 visit to Minsk. During that visit, Hillary Clinton took part in distributing humanitarian aid to children’s hospitals along with the wife of the then-head of state, Stanislau Shushkevich. She also met with the director of the ballet troupe of the National Theater, Valiantsin Yelizaryeu.
Interestingly, Hillary Clinton had never seen the video before though she remembers the events of those days.
