The Belarusian opposition condemns Lukashenko and the election on Sunday

Svetlana Tihanovskaya refuses to call the election what is happening this weekend in Belarus.

“This is a fraud,” says the opposition leader in exile. “This is a military -style operation; A performance organized by the regime to retain power.

For three decades, the country has been guided by the increasingly authoritarian Alexander Lukashenko, now firmly supported by Vladimir Putin, who uses his neighbor in his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This Sunday, Belarusi will again see Lukashenko’s name in the newsletter with four other names, chosen carefully so as not to be a challenge.

Independent observers are not allowed.

Strict control was introduced because the last time the Belarusians voted for president, the country was swept away by giant protests.

In 2020, Alexander Lukashenko allowed Svetlana Tihanovskaya to run against him, believing that a politically novice – and a woman would not have an impact.

It was a huge mistake in the calculations.

Tihanovskaya, who decided to stand in the place of her husband after Lukashenko put him in prison, announced Pobeda.

When Lukashenko received 80% of the vote, crowds took to the streets in the biggest threat to Lukashenko’s management. The protests were eventually crushed by police to combat riots with mass arrests and brute force.

Then the European Union refused to recognize Lukashenko’s legitimacy as president.

Today, all key oppositions of this period are in prison or have fled abroad, like Tihanovskaya. Former protesters still in Belarus were scared and silent.

So the opposition leader does not call them again to go out on the street on Sunday.

“We urge Belarusi to reject this fraud and the international community to reject the result,” she told the BBC. “But I tell the Belarusies, you have to beware until the real moment of opportunity.

“Because people live in constant fear, and regime now enhances repression.

You immediately feel this fear when you talk to Belarusi.

Many do not want to speak publicly about politics at all. Others ask you to change their names, and then choose their words carefully.

Some still talk in Belarus only through encrypted messages that they delete immediately.

Everyone says that open political activity in the country is extinguished.

BYSOL, a non -profit organization that helps the evacuation of those in danger, reports a jump in requests up to about 30 or 40 requests per month.

Since 2020, the group has evacuated more than 1500 people.

He also supports former political prisoners who are trying to restore their lives in exile after their release.

For Yana Zhuraleva, a veterinarian, it was difficult.

Before 2020, she was committed to her work and not particularly politically active. But this summer she joined the huge crowds, hoping for change.

She was later sentenced to three years for “gross violation of public order”.

“We were punished for everything,” she recalls her stay in prison.

She estimates that about 1 in 10 women were there because of the protests. Like them, Yana was added to the register of “prone to extremism and destructive activity”.

“You can’t go to the gym, your only letters are from relatives and you get less right to visit. If you complain, you always hear the same answer: remember what you are here, “she tells me from Poland, where she moved after her recent release.

Yana admits that a “titanic” force was needed so that she would not be deeply depressed.

“I almost didn’t cry in prison. But when I came out, I suddenly wanted to sob all the time and didn’t know why. “

Several people I contacted mentioned that they had sought psychological help after being questioned, threatened or closed.

They describe a security service that pursues anyone who has the weakest connection with the opposition, and then requires names from everyone they hold.

The pressure has never weakened.

A woman in Belarus who has observed human rights tells me that she should have stopped attending court hearings because the authorities have noticed her.

If they manage to prove any connection with the forbidden human rights organization, it can be accused of “extremist”.

“I can make some specific acts of support, but I have to be careful,” she told me anonymously.

“You have a very strong sense of helplessness when you see all this injustice.

Viasna currently lists 1256 political prisoners in Belarus. Dozens have been amnestied recently, but soon they have been replaced.

For those who still escape from the Belarus pressure cooker, there is an extra struggle to know that they may not be back for a long time.

That is why Natalia is not her real name, she decided to stay in Belarus even after being detained twice to participate in the protests.

“You are very vulnerable when you are on the list of” repressed, “she explains.

“You can’t find a job because you’re in the police database and the authorities always follow you …”

For Natalia, this meant being arrested again, initially for a walk of her dog without reason.

“They claimed that I was aggressive and cursed strongly and I was a neighborhood,” she remembers her detention in 2023. They kept her with up to 14 people in a cell for two, constantly turned on light.

For more than a week, she slept on the wooden floor.

“It really shook my sense of security, I became much more worrying,” Natalia confides.

He is abroad for now and is planning to return to his cats soon. But her neighbors say a police officer had just visited her house to check all the potential protesters before the vote on Sunday.

Svetlana Tihanovskaya believes that continuing repression shows that Lukashenko and his allies are afraid.

“The 2020 trauma is still alive and he must eliminate every opportunity for uprising,” the opposition leader argues.

“He knows that Belarus has not accepted him or forgive him and still want a change.

But she admits that there are few signs of this in the short term.

Some time after the full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine, Belarusi hoped that their neighbors could be able to defeat Putin with the help of the West and that Lukashenko would follow him.

Some of themselves went to the front line, choosing the power after their peaceful protests failed.

But the Ukrainian army is now struggling to stay and President Donald Trump is pushing for peace talks.

“The democratic world cannot make concessions to Putin,” Tihanovskaya said, describing Lukashenko as just as dangerous to the world.

He allowed Russia to launch rockets against Ukraine from Belarus and sent its tanks through its territory.

It also allowed the free flow of migrants to the Polish border and to the EU.

“He allows Putin to deploy his nuclear weapons and his army in Belarus, and the road to Poland and Lithuania is very short,” Tihanovskaya said.

“He and Putin are a couple and support other dictators. He is part of this chain of evil.”

There is no doubt that the restoration of Alexander Lukashenko will take place on his plan on Sunday.

“These people are very capable,” explains former political prisoner Yana.

“They really crushed the potential to protest.

She is now trying to return to her profession as a veterinarian, but in Poland, and recover from three difficult years behind bars.

Those I spoke to now see Lukashenko’s retirement or his possible death as their greatest hope of seeing democracy.

In the meantime, many are changing their focus: there is a rush of interest in the revival of Belarusian culture and language, an opposition cause. This is the most that many dare to do in such circumstances.

“Nobody tells it openly, but it seems to us that there are no prospects. There is depression,” Natalia admits.

But there are no obvious regrets, though.

The life of Svetlana Tihanovskaya herself has changed dramatically since she entered politics.

Sorted out of her country, her husband is also a political prisoner – held in complete isolation for almost two years.

The opposition leader insists that he still “truly believes” in change.

“2020 was a huge change in the mentality in Belarus. I don’t know how long it will take, but this change will not disappear. “