Belarusian opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, who traveled to Washington on Wednesday, called on her country to sever ties with its “colonialist” Russian neighbor.
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“It’s time to oppose Russian interference in the internal affairs of Belarus,” she urged during a press conference in Congress.
Moscow “supports the illegitimate regime” and “carries out colonialist actions,” accused the 40-year-old opponent, who ran for president in 2020 against the country’s strongman, Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for three decades.
Forced into exile, she is now the face of democratic forces in Belarus and the enemy of a regime whose brutal abuses she tirelessly denounces.
From Washington, Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa called on the Belarusians to sever their “close ties with the Russian aggressor.”
“The military aggressor is using our territory, our airspace, to attack and threaten Ukraine,” she regretted, calling on the Russian army to “completely withdraw from Belarus.”
In early March, a Belarusian court sentenced Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa in absentia to 15 years in prison in connection with heavy repression orchestrated by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
The press conference she attended in the US Congress was organized by two senators leading a parliamentary faction in support of the Belarusian opposition.
“Mr. Lukashenko allowed Belarusian territory to be used to further Mr. Putin’s expansionist project and facilitate unjustified attacks on Ukraine,” condemned New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen.