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‘Please Don’t Disappoint the Belarusian People’

As Belarus’s embattled president continues a brutal crackdown, challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya tries to keep the flames of democracy alive.

By , a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya delivers a speech as she receives the Sakharov Prize for human rights during the award ceremony at European Parliament in Brussels on Dec. 16, 2020.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya delivers a speech as she receives the Sakharov Prize for human rights during the award ceremony at European Parliament in Brussels on Dec. 16, 2020.
Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya delivers a speech as she receives the Sakharov Prize for human rights during the award ceremony at European Parliament in Brussels on Dec. 16, 2020. John Thys/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Six months after Belarus erupted in protests following fraudulent elections, embattled President Aleksandr Lukashenko has managed to cling on to power in the face of unprecedented unrest. Often described as Europe’s last dictator, Lukashenko has employed brute force to quash dissent, and 33,000 people have been arrested since protests began in August. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced sanctions on 43 Belarusian officials involved in the crackdown after the journalists Katsiaryna Bakhvalava and Daria Chultsova were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for filming protests in November. 

Amy Mackinnon is a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @ak_mack

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