What the Russian president wants is not only the actual annexation of territories, but loyal regimes and full russification of countries and nations, says Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

She told Euronews that although the protest movement in her country had to go mostly underground it also means people are getting ready to rise up in the right moment.

Speaking of whether changes in Belarus can come from changes in Russia, Tsikhanouskaya thinks “something can happen in Russia and hence it will be weaker Alyaksandr Lukashenka and people will rise up again. It might be victory of Ukraine –  it also will weaken Putin and weaken Lukashenka”.

“But the changes in Russia can start from changes in Belarus as well”, Tsikhanouskaya added, saying there are “more possibilities to change regime in Belarus, than in Russia”.

“All this constant repressions that we are going through for 4, almost 5 years already haven’t made people forget or forgive or to deny their pro-European perspectives”. 

According to Belarusian human rights center Vyasna, over 50 000 people have been detained for political reasons after mass protests broke out following the August 2020 presidential election and at least 5,472 people have been convicted in politically motivated criminal cases.

The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since then, mostly to Poland and Lithuania.

The 2020 protests were triggered by the results of the election that gave Alyaksandr Lukashenka his sixth term in office.

Still now, 15 to 20 people are being detained in Belarus every day, according to Tsikhanouskaya: “He (Lukashenka) behaves as if he still has thousands of people standing in front of his palace”.

“This visible quietness of the country doesn’t mean that people gave up. It means that people are preparing and they will be ready when there will be the possibility.”