Belarusians in Lithuania support protest in their country
Audio 02:36
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, leader of the Bielorruse opposition, before her meeting with Angela Merkel, in Berlin on October 6, 2020. REUTERS / Fabrizio Bensch
By: Marielle Vitureau
6 min
It's a very international week for Svetlana Tikhanovskaia, the Belarusian opponent exiled in Vilnius, Lithuania.
She has been in Germany since Monday, October 5, where she met Angela Merkel.
She will meet with French MPs today, nearly a week after meeting Emmanuel Macron in the Lithuanian capital, before leaving for a forum on security in Slovakia.
Almost two months after the holding of rigged elections, how do we see the situation from Vilnius, refuge for many Belarusians?
The report of our correspondent in the Lithuanian capital.
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Two months after the elections, Hanna still comes to protest in the evening in front of the Belarusian embassy.
She came from Minsk 5 years ago and here in Vilnius recently she has learned a new expression, Long live Belarus.
“
For me Zhyvie Belarus, that means independence, the freedom to express my opinion, the freedom to be who I am here in Vilnius and that is the absence of detention and all that.
"
Just thirty kilometers from the Belarusian border, it is understandable that time is running out to dislodge Alexander Lukashenko.
Tatiana Tchulitskaia teaches political science at the university.
For her, the economy will play an important role in precipitating the fall of the regime.
“
There is a real drop in the consumption of Belarusian goods, moreover when my friends go shopping, there is an application that allows them to know whether the producer is connected with the Lukashenko regime or not.
"
In the space of two months, Belarusians took their destiny into their own hands.
They now form a de facto sovereign nation.
But European protests and sanctions will not be enough for Tatiana Shtchhittosva, professor of philosophy at the Belarusian University in exile in Vilnius.
“
The international community could force the Belarusian authorities to engage in dialogue with civil society.
There are many diplomatic ways to ensure that not all power is concentrated in the hands of a few people.
The nomenklatura is not that homogeneous.
"
On August 11, Vilnius hosted the opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaia.
Since then, she has multiplied international meetings.
A good thing for Linas Linkevicius, the Lithuanian Minister for Foreign Affairs.
“
Svetlana Tikhanovskaia stresses that her goal and that of the transition coordination is to put the democratic process back on track through the election of a new president recognized by the population and the international community.
It is therefore important that we consider it as his advice as legitimate for that and all these meetings with heads of state give him this legitimacy.
"
In Lithuania, the whole society is helping.
The country has granted more than 300 humanitarian visas and the University of Vilnius has just created the scholarships of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for Belarusian students in difficulty.
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Lithuania
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