Svetlana Tichanowskaja during the election campaign in Minsk
Photo: Sergei Grits / dpaAlexander Lukashenko and Svetlana Tichanowskaja, the two opponents of the presidential elections in Belarus, both made quite strange public appearances this Friday.
Svetlana Tichanovskaya gave her first press conference after fleeing into exile in Vilnius, Lithuania. The English teacher stood in for her imprisoned husband, blogger Sergei Tichanowskij, during the election campaign and, as a joint opposition candidate, probably received more votes than President Lukashenko - at least that is the unanimous opinion in the capital Minsk. Autocrat Lukashenko nevertheless proclaimed himself the winner and forced the opponent into exile. The EU did not recognize his election victory.
Even after the election campaign, Tichanovskaya is still not a politician, you could tell from the awkward, haltingly presented, monosyllabic answers she gave to the press.
When does she plan to return to Minsk? "If I feel safe there." Are you afraid that Russia will interfere in Belarus? "I call on all countries in the world to respect the sovereignty of Belarus."
Does she advocate sanctions against the regime? She repeats: "I call on all countries in the world to respect the sovereignty of our country." That is obviously a no.
Will she take part in new elections in Belarus? "It's not worth talking about at the moment. Our job is to fight for these fair, open new elections."
Did Moscow try to contact you? "There were no attempts."
She stood up with evident relief at the end of the brief event.
The husband is in custody
Tichanovskaya is in a difficult position. On the one hand, although she is not the leader, she has become the face of the protest that threatens to end Lukashenko's 26-year rule, and against which the president is brutally acting. She therefore calls for the strikes to continue. She has proposed herself as a "National Leader" who will accompany a peaceful change of power.
On the other hand, her husband is in custody, she can be blackmailed. Even now she does not want to disclose what threats the regime used to force her into exile and what she had to promise.
The man who proclaimed himself the election winner and with this manipulation caused the largest protests in the history of his country, Alexander Lukashenko, also appeared on Friday. The television showed his visits to a chicken farm and a milk factory. "How many employees are on strike here?" He asked the director immediately after leaving the helicopter, and was pleased with the answer, they were all working. "Yes, yes, whoever goes on strike cannot raise chickens," said Lukashenko precociously.
Then he instructed the staff, who listened with stone faces, about the world situation. Emmanuel Macron offered his intermediary services - he, Lukashenko, would rather help the French President talk to the yellow vests! Even the Germans only got involved to distract from their own problems in the fight with the corona pandemic.
Lukashenko spoke routinely, harshly, with ardor - he was the opposite of Tichanovskaya's cautious demeanor. The message to the audience was: The rallies and strikes that are being used to protest the rigged election victory are insignificant and will soon be defeated, the country is now turning back to more important things: chickens, cows, potatoes. "Belarusian television news currently consists of 50 percent of the president, 30 percent of the harvest campaign, and in between there is a warning that the demonstration police should not be offended," said a Belarusian journalist bitterly.
The fear grows
The strategy could even work: This week has shown that the workers' willingness to strike is limited and that fear of the autocrat and his judiciary is rising again. Prominent members of the newly formed coordination council of the protest movement, which is supposed to organize a peaceful transfer of power and new elections, were hired for questioning by the investigation committee on Friday; they are threatened with criminal proceedings for attempting to seize power. However, they are still formally regarded as witnesses. It is no coincidence that Lukashenko had a meeting with the heads of the police before visiting the chicken farm.
How things will proceed depends on whether the protest movement can keep up the pressure on the streets. Last Sunday, a good hundred thousand Minsk people demonstrated against Lukashenko. A new mass rally is planned for this Sunday.
Icon: The mirror