Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is in Canada this telling anyone who will listen that democratic countries must be united in their opposition to dictators.
By dictators, she is referring to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose government imprisoned her husband and drove her into exile, and Lukashenko’s close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tsikhanouskaya challenged Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, a role she took over from her husband, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, who was arrested days after he announced his candidacy.
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for decades, won in a landslide, sparking massive protests in the country. Tsikhanouskaya and her allies, as well as independent election monitors, maintain the election was rigged in Lukashenko’s favour. Several western countries, including Canada, have not recognized his victory.
Since then, Tsikhanouskaya has lived in exile in Lithuania, and has spent the last four years travelling the world, urging leaders to support the pro-democracy movement in Belarus and anti-Russian resistance in neighbouring Ukraine.
She reiterated messages to political and military leaders …