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to quell the thought that security police might have
tricked her into believing she was about to be jailed,
simply in order to force her into exile. “Sometimes I
doubt I made the correct decision,” she says.
If Lukashenko believed banishing Tikhanovs-
kaya would end her threat to his rule, he was wrong.
From her headquarters in Vilnius, Tikhanovskaya
and other activists have spent months plotting how
to force Lukashenko out of power, and to seek help
from Western officials. After finding her voice as a
candidate in her home country, Tikhanovskaya says
she has had to learn on the fly how to become a poli-
tician. “It is so difficult to understand and realize
that on your decisions, so much depends,” she says.
One key strategy, forged in regular talks with
U.S. and E.U. officials, is to push for far tougher
economic sanctions on Lukashenko’s government
than Western countries have so far approved. After
Tikhanov skaya consulted with U.S. State Depart-
ment officials, Congress passed sweeping legis-
lation in late November, saying it would not rec-
ognize Lukashenko’s government, and backing
Tikhanovskaya.
Forcing out Lukashenko will take tougher action,
however, given Putin’s billions in aid. Some Belaru-
sian activists hope that as Lukashenko becomes in-
creasingly hated at home, Putin might pull his sup-
port. Lukashenko is already isolated in his capital
trying to stamp out the protests. All the while, Tikh-
anovskaya has zipped across Europe, meeting Ger-
man Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President
Emmanuel Macron and other leaders. In Brussels
in December, she and other Belarus activists were
feted in the Euro pean Parliament, where they were
awarded the E.U.’s human- rights honor, the Sakha-
rov Prize. And yet, despite her fast rise, Tikhanovs-
kaya says she does not envision herself as the next
President of Belarus. She is painfully aware that her
husband sits in a solitary cell in a Belarus jail.
Decisions about her own political future, she
says, will come later. Should Lukashenko face trial?
That question has two answers, she says. “As a per-
son, I cannot forgive his crimes,” she says. “But
for the future of Belarus, he can leave for Russia,
or wherever, or stay in his house.” Tikhanovskaya
knows that decision would likely face strong criti-
cism back home. “But if you have to think glob-
ally, sometimes you have to take such decisions,”
she says, already sounding—after half a year in
politics—like a seasoned leader.
‘As a person,
I cannot
forgive his
crimes.’
SVETLANA
TIKHANOVSKAYA,
on becoming a
leader in exile
EMIL HELMS—RITZAU SCANPIX/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
