The leading Belarusian opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski was today sentenced to 18 years in Belarusian prison. Tsikhanouski, who was arrested in May 2020 shortly after announcing his candidacy for the presidency of Belarus, was convicted of “organizing mass unrest”, a sweeping claim put forward by the Lukashenka controlled court. 

After the arrest of Tsikhanouski last year, his wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya replaced him as the leading opposition candidate in the presidential election. In a statement released today, shortly after her husband was sentenced to 18 years in prison, Tsikhanouskaya said: “The dictator publicly takes revenge on his strongest opponent. While hiding the political prisoners in closed trials, he hopes to continue repressions in silence. But the whole world watches. We won’t stop”. 

As the Russian aggression towards Ukraine is continuously increasing, as the support to Belarus dictator Lukashenko, the Kremlin crackdown on the civil society and the democratic forces of Russia is also increasing. After years of suppressing whats is left of the democratic institutions in the country, the main target of the Kremlin this week is the NGO Memorial. Memorial, Russia’s oldest and perhaps most renowned civil rights group, has worked since 1989 to preserve and present memories of the atrocitites that faced the Russian people under the Soviet rule.

Now being described as a ”foreign agent” – and with Russian government agencies falsely claiming that Memorial has failed to label itself that properly – the NGO is facing legal charges. This week, Russian courts will decide whether or not to liquidate the whole organisation. This intervention has been condemned by the European Union, the United States and is yet another example of the authoritarian development which is proceeding in Russia, all orchestrated by Vladimir Putin.

The crackdown on the Belarusian democratic movement, which dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko accelerated after last years stolen elections in the country, is accelerating. With further international sanctions aimed at the dictatorship, Lukashenko keeps responding by punishing his own people.

According to Franak Viacorka, senior advisor to leader of democratic Belarus Sviatala Tsikhanouskaya, a woman was detained some days ago in Minsk. The reason behind her arrest was a light she had lit in her window in mourning of murdered protester Raman Bandarenka, at the anniversary of his death. This is yet another example of the methods of the regime. The EU and the United States have jointly adopted several sanctions aimed at the regime, and the European Commission has not ruled out further sanctions in the near future.