The Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya will begin operating from Warsaw on January 30, Rzeczpospolita reports. According to the newspaper, a meeting between Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the last one she held in Lithuania.
Tsikhanouskaya explained to the newspaper that the move was prompted by a reduction in the level of security provided to her in Lithuania.
“I thought that I would have to return to my homeland from Vilnius, which is only 30 km from the border with Belarus. But the level of our security in Lithuania has changed. This is not only about my personal safety, but also about the staff of our office. This forced me to look for other solutions and reorganize our activities,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
Tsikhanouskaya did not elaborate on the reasons behind the Lithuanian government’s decision.
“I am very grateful to Lithuania, which was the first to extend a hand to me and for many years supported the Belarusian democratic forces,” she said.
The newspaper also quotes an anonymous source who said that Tsikhanouskaya was merely given a phone number and told to call the police in case of danger.
“She was left without protection. She was given only the police phone number and asked to call in case of danger. This was explained by the fact that they do not have a sufficient number of officers for round-the-clock protection,” the source told the newspaper.
Rzeczpospolita reports that, according to its information, Tsikhanouskaya informed Western governments about the situation and called Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“Poland has gone through a difficult path to independence, and in Poland the sense of solidarity with those who are still on this path has not disappeared. Moreover, Belarusians’ aspiration for democracy and freedom enjoys cross-party support in Poland.
Lukashenka poses a threat not only to his fellow citizens, whom he kills, rapes, and maims. Poles, seeing flying balloons and drones, understand perfectly well that the dictator’s regime serving Russia also threatens Poland’s security,” the newspaper quoted Tsikhanouskaya as saying.
According to her, part of the office staff will remain in Lithuania, while the rest will soon move to Warsaw. As a possible location for the office, the newspaper names the Belarusian House in the Saska Kępa district, which was handed over to Belarusians in 2020.
An unnamed source in the Polish government told the newspaper that Poland had made a strategic choice.
“We have made a certain strategic choice and are sticking to it. Otherwise, we would have had to submit to the growing Russian occupation actions.
We have no illusions that on the other side of the border there is a person in power who would carry out any order from Vladimir Putin, especially when it comes to hostile actions against EU countries, and above all Poland,” the source said.
Another unnamed source from Vilnius linked the changes in the Lithuanian authorities’ policy toward the Tsikhanouskaya Office to a change in the composition of the government, which is now supported by the Dawn of Nemunas party.
“The problems began in September, when a government was formed in Vilnius with the participation of the Dawn of Nemunas party — an anti-system, populist movement that some commentators compare to Germany’s AfD. Some politicians from this faction put obstacles in the way of the Tsikhanouskaya Office and sabotaged many of its steps. They are the ones who finished her off here,” the newspaper quoted the unnamed source as saying.
The trigger for the Lithuanian elites was also the project of a new Belarus passport bearing the Pahonia coat of arms. At the same time, the newspaper’s source noted that the Lithuanian authorities have no agreements with Alyaksandr Lukashenka and that no dialogue with Minsk is being conducted.
