From Belarus, By Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

A lesson for the US...before it's too late...or is it already? One thing I know, it isn't business as usual. We must act now!

Belarus—nestled between the European Union, Ukraine, and Russia—has long been overlooked and underestimated by outsiders, who often see it as little more than an extension of Russia. This perception stems largely from the grip of the country’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Since 1994, he has transformed Belarus into a repressive state marked by fraudulent elections, systemic violence, and a deepening reliance on Moscow and Beijing.

But five years ago, Belarusians made it clear that they do not want to live in a belligerent autocracy, isolated from the rest of Europe and the rest of the world. In 2020, I entered Belarus’s presidential election to stop Lukashenko from claiming a sixth term. I didn’t expect to win; Lukashenko had rigged every previous contest. But my message—free the country’s political prisoners, end repression, hold real elections, and restore the rule of law—struck a nerve. According to independent observers, Belarusians overwhelmingly voted for me. When Lukashenko declared himself the winner anyway, the country exploded in the largest peaceful uprising in its modern history. Up to 1.5 million people flooded the streets of Belarusian cities demanding change.

I did not intend to enter politics. I was an English teacher and then a full-time mother focused on helping my hearing-impaired son. My husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, was the political one—an entrepreneur whose blog exposed the daily humiliations of life under dictatorship. His words inspired thousands. When he announced his candidacy in May 2020, the regime arrested him days later. I decided to run in his place—not out of ambition, but out of love.

The response to the protests was brutal. To clear the streets, the regime carried out waves of mass arrests, engaged in widespread torture, and generally terrorized the populace. It detained tens of thousands of people, and it beat hundreds more. I was forced into exile, along with many others. But still, the uprising shook the regime to its core. The demonstrations might have succeeded, if not for Russian President Vladimir Putin. To prepare for his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Putin needed Belarus as a launching pad. He thus propped up Lukashenko by sending in security advisers and other kinds of operatives, providing financial assistance, and signaling a readiness to intervene more intensely—saving Lukashenko’s rule in return for obedience and Belarus’s subjugation. Today, my country remains under de facto Russian occupation. Nine million people are being held hostage by a regime that answers not to them, but to the Kremlin.