An interview with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Belarus’s leader in exile
It is a time of monsters
SVETLANA TIKHANOVSKAYA, a former teacher and a mother of two, did not choose to make history. But history has chosen her for a starring role. Despite her lack of political experience, she has come to personify the struggle to transform Belarus from docile former Soviet republic to free and truly independent nation. The leaders of rich democracies greet her as president-elect. Her own people derive comfort from her simple, calm words. Alexander Lukashenko, the gun-toting dictator who has ruled Belarus for the past 26 years, fears her enough to have forced her out of the country after she (probably) won a presidential election in August.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A new country struggles to be born”
From the December 5th 2020 edition
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