The presidential candidate of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya left the country and is now in Lithuania, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Baltic Republic Linas Linkevicius. Tikhanovskaya herself made a video message in which she stated that she had left for the children.
“Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is safe, she is in Lithuania”, – Linkevichus wrote on Twitter.
The official representative of the State Border Committee of Belarus, Anton Bychkovsky, said that Tikhanovskaya crossed the border with Lithuania last night, and no obstacles were made to her.
According to him, the candidate left at about 3:30 through the Kotlovka checkpoint.
“At the checkpoint, she presented her documents, was issued absolutely freely, no action was taken towards her”, – Bychkovsky said.
He emphasized that Tikhanovskaya had all the documents for the smooth crossing of the Belarusian border, including medical insurance and car insurance.
“Tough decision”
Later, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya published a video message entitled “I left for the children”, in which she stated that the decision to leave was exclusively her own.
“I thought that this whole campaign hardened me very much and gave me so much strength that I can withstand everything. But, probably, I still remained the weak woman I was originally. I made a very difficult decision for myself”, – she said it.
Tikhanovskaya stressed that the decision was made “absolutely independently”, neither friends, nor her husband, nor the campaign headquarters had any influence on him.
“I know that many will understand me, many will condemn me, and many will hate. But, you know, God forbid to face such a choice, which I faced”, -said Tikhanovskaya.
In conclusion, she urged her associates to take care of themselves.
“Please, no life is worth what is happening now. Children are the most important thing in our life. There is no other way out”.
The departure of Tikhanovskaya was commented on by the deputy chairman of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs Kazbek Taysayev.
In his opinion, there could be no other scenario for the development of events.
«She acted and acts as a provocateur. They hoped, of course, for a completely different effect, but the Belarusian people are a wise people, very kind, good people. They figured out everything that is, and the effect that the “sworn friends” hoped for and Russia, and Belarus, failed. Therefore, of course, she left Belarus, there is no other choice», – said the deputy to RIA Novosti.
The departure of Tikhanovskaya is unlikely to seriously affect the protests in Belarus, says Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Council for Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia.
“People did not vote for Tikhanovskaya, she was just the only real alternative candidate <…> All the others are just spoilers. Therefore, so many votes were cast for her <…> Perhaps the protests are somewhat transformed. But people are protesting not so much for Tikhanovskaya, how many against Lukashenko”, – he said.
Bezpalko suggested that a regime change could take place in Belarus – if economic sanctions or personal sanctions against the security forces are introduced against it.
“It is also possible if there is an appeal to the security officials so that Lukashenko was removed from power. Moreover, there are preconditions for this, a number of security officials even before the elections, however, hiding their faces, supported the protesters and stated that they were against Lukashenko and that they are ready to solidarize with the people of Belarus”, – the expert explained.
According to him, the problem for Russia in this situation is that now these protests are taking place not only against Lukashenko, they intercept parties and movements of the nationalist persuasion.
The presidential elections in Belarus took place on August 9. They were attended by the current president Alexander Lukashenko, who ran for a sixth term, Andrei Dmitriev, Anna Kanopatskaya, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Sergei Cherechen.
According to the CEC, Lukashenko wins with 80.08 percent of the vote, while Tikhanovskaya comes second with 10.09 percent. At the same time, the headquarters of Tikhanovskaya said that they did not recognize the official results, since the data from the polling stations showed that she gained 70-80 percent.