“Should you pass out and get started protesting, you’ll be thrown in prison,” Balenok mentioned. “Possibly you’ll pop out someday. Possibly no longer.”
Exiled Belarus opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya protested the election from the Polish capital Warsaw on Sunday. “Lately, we marched for freedom in Warsaw — united and unshaken, honoring our heroes who gave their lives for freedom,” she posted on X, along footage from the demonstrations.
“In combination, we’re unstoppable,” she mentioned. “As Belarusians, we can by no means lose hope. We can reclaim our nation and go back house more potent than ever.”
In an interview with POLITICO final week, Tsikhanouskaya advised global leaders to “be ready for the following second of alternative,” and to have a “technique” to benefit from the following possible tipping level when Lukashenko’s dictatorship may fall.
“There might be most effective two choices for Belarus: Both anyone very pro-Russia like Lukashenko’s fans or it’s going to be democratic forces,” she mentioned.
As he solid his vote on Sunday, Lukashenko instructed journalists that a few of his political combatants had “selected” to visit jail or into exile. Whilst nobody was once avoided from talking out in Belarus, jail was once “for individuals who opened their mouths too vast, to position it bluntly, those that broke the legislation,” he was once reported as pronouncing by way of Reuters.
