Belarus, demonstrators around the headquarters of the state TV

2020-08-17T13:37:08.048Z

"I am ready to lead the country": Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says she is "ready to take on the responsibility of being a national leader in this period" to manage the transition and organize new presidential elections in Belarus. This was stated, a week after the disputed electoral result, by the same challenger of President Alexander Lukashenko in a new video released from exile in Lithuania. "I didn't want to be a politician. But fate decided that I was at the forefront of the fight against arbitrary rules and injustice," the 37-year-old said after a week of protests and violence in Minsk and other Belarusian cities. Yesterday, in particular, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in the capital against the alleged victory of President Lukashenko, in power for 26 years, who claimed to have obtained 80% of the votes in the election on 9 August. The international community has not recognized the result, but Lukashenko is supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In today's video, Tikhanovskaya also states that he wants to "calm the country, free political prisoners and prepare the legal conditions for organizing new political elections as soon as possible". Meanwhile, several hundred demonstrators gathered around the building that houses the editorial offices of Ont and Stv, the two Belarusian state television networks. According to the online newspaper Nasha Niva, around 300 demonstrators sang the chorus "Riprendeteci!". Opposition Telegram channels show images of a crowd in front of the building's entrance raising signs and waving red and white flags. On 15 August another protest took place in front of another public broadcaster, Brtc, whose employees, reports Interfax, are considering a strike and are currently in conversation with the group's president, Ivan Eismont. According to internal sources, some employees of Ont, Stv and Belarus 1, another network controlled by the state, are also considering the strike.