Alexander Lukashenko, Belerusia’s president, is a “grovelling pawn” of the Kremlin – and should call time on his “poisonous” regime before he ousted by his own people, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanoustkaya has said.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya, currently living in Lithuania, made her outspoken remarks at a time when her country is very much in the spotlight, with Poland having sent 10,000 to the border over concerns over possibly incursions by Wagner Group mercenaries.
Ms Tsikhanouskaya found herself at the centre of a power struggle in 2020, when it was claimed she won more than 60 percent of the vote in the first-round of Belarus’s presidential election, only to have her victory denied and Lukashenko installed as President, a position he has occupied since 1994.
Writing for Express.co.uk, she explained: “Alexander Lukashenko declared himself winner of a presidential election he had clearly lost. He sent his security thugs to arrest, beat up and later imprison anyone who dared dispute his diktat.
“He then turned to Vladimir Putin to bail him out of the political and economic disasters he had inflicted on a country yearning for democratic rule and respect for human rights.
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Alexander Lukashenko is a ‘grovelling pawn, said Sviatlana Tsikhanoustkaya (Image: Getty)
“The alliance of convenience between a Kremlin war-monger and his grovelling pawn is not just a problem for the people of Belarus betrayed by Lukashenko’s lust for power.”
Three years after what she called a “stolen election”, the world was realising Lukashenko played no useful part bringing a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine.
She continued: “He is a blundering menace who has become a dangerous component of Russian aggression. What has he done for his people lately?
“Let me answer that with another question. What responsible leader of any country would casually invite a mercenary army armed to the teeth and renowned for its lawless ferocity to settle within its borders?
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Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin (Image: GETTY)
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“The arrival in Belarus last month of several thousand fighters from the Kremlin-funded Wagner Group, led by the insurrectionist oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, provides no justifiable service to the Belarusian people; most of us are horrified at their presence.
“Yet there was Lukashenko on television the other day, proudly joking to Putin that his pet Wagner thugs were asking permission to invade Poland.
“’They are in a bad mood,’ he told Putin. ‘But of course, I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed’”.
Lukashenko wanted his own people to believe Prigozhin “and his murderous spawn are obedient slaves to his orders”, Ms Tsikhanouskaya said.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, exiled Belarusian opposition leader (Image: Getty)
“He also sees no harm in accepting imports of Russian nuclear weapons, thereby turning Belarus into a target should Putin double down on unthinkable aggression.
“He has become a danger not just to his own people, but to his neighbours in Europe and beyond. He has sacrificed the independence of Belarus in order to save his own skin.”
Ms Tsikhanouskaya continued: “My husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, also remains in jail three years after he announced he would run against Lukashenko in the 2020 election.
“His arrest two days later kept him out of the campaign; I ran in his place, and gave Lukashenko the fright of his life when he realised he was losing to a woman.
“However long it takes, we will fight to end this poisonous regime. We hope our many friends in the democratic world will recognise the threat that Lukashenko poses and help us to end his malevolent rule.”
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