October Lecture Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Описание: Wedged between Russia, Ukraine and NATO and EU member states Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, Belarus occupies a pivotal geopolitical position in the heart of Europe. There is growing fear that in the coming years Belarus may serve Vladimir Putin as a staging ground for an attack on NATO. In September 2025, all eyes in Europe are on ‘Zapad’, the joint military exercise of Russia and Belarus.

Ruled for 31 years by a cruel dictatorship, backed by the Kremlin, Belarusian citizens yearn for freedom. President-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her husband Syarhei, who was imprisoned for five years in near isolation, are the brave spokesmen of the Belarusian hope that is still alive despite the ever increasing repression by Lukashenka, often dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator’ and Putin.

Tsikhanouskaya has lived in exile in the EU since 2020, when she was forced to flee Belarus with her two children. All evidence indicates that Tsikhanouskaya won the presidential elections in Belarus in August of that year, defeating Aliaksandr Lukashenka. The election results were falsified, and Tsikhanouskaya was forced to leave the country. Together with her team, she has since operated from neighbouring Lithuania as the National Leader of Belarus, a government-in-exile.

The mass protests that erupted in Minsk and other cities after the rigged elections were brutally crushed by the regime. Lukashenka unleashed unprecedented repression. To this day, Belarus still holds more than 1,100 political prisoners. Thanks to pressure from the United States, Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Syarhei was recently released. He was severely emaciated. Syarhei, vlogger and political activist, had been imprisoned since before the 2020 elections. Until his release, Sviatlana and their two daughters had not heard from him for three years.

In her October Lecture, Tsikhanouskaya will reflect on five years of repression in Belarus and discuss the future of her country and of Europe. Caught between Russia, Ukraine and NATO, what is the current state of Belarus? Will the country still exist as a sovereign state five years from now? Why is Belarus so vital for European security? And how do Belarusians view Russia’s war against Ukraine?