Everything that the ex-presidential candidate of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya says publicly, speaks about her plans and thoughts, possibly plays a role in the fact that she is in Lithuania, which does not hide its ambitions towards Belarus, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“She, in my opinion, speaks openly about herself. She calls for resistance, calls on international organizations to impose sanctions against her own country. In general, everything she says publicly speaks about her, her plans, her thoughts”, – said the minister during a press conference with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Lavrov noted that given “the rather visible, visible metamorphoses that are taking place with her, the fact that she is located in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, which also does not hide its ambitions regarding Belarus and its future, is probably also affected”.
On Thursday, the Seim (Parliament) of Lithuania adopted a resolution in which it called the ex-candidate in the presidential elections in Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya “the elected leader of the republic”. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Lithuania in its behavior on the situation around Belarus has crossed all the lines of decency. According to the minister, there is reason to believe that the Lithuanian authorities and Tikhanovskaya “are not working by democratic methods”.
Massive opposition protests began across Belarus on August 9, after the presidential elections, which, according to the CEC, Lukashenko won for the sixth time, gaining 80.1% of the vote. The opposition believes that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya won the election. In the early days, the actions were suppressed by the security forces; against the protesters who did not agree with the results, they used tear gas, water cannons, flash-noise grenades, rubber bullets.
Then the law enforcement agencies stopped using force to disperse the rallies. According to official data, over 6.7 thousand people were detained in the first days. As reported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic, hundreds of people were injured during the riots, including over 120 law enforcement officers. The authorities reported the deaths of three protesters.