Biography

Sviatlana Hieorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya (née Pilipchuk; born 11 September 1982) is a Belarusian political activist. After standing as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election against the president Alexander Lukashenko, she has led the political opposition to his authoritarian rule through an oppositional government operating from Lithuania.

Tsikhanouskaya became an opposition leader after her husband, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, ran as a presidential candidate in the 2020 presidential election. He was arrested, along with most other opposition leaders, and, as she was unable to file for the presidency on his behalf, Tsikhanouskaya entered herself into the race as a candidate. Lukashenko allowed her candidacy because he believed that a woman could not form legitimate opposition. She ran on a platform of constitutional reform, seeking free and fair elections with term limits on the presidency, and she pledged to step down once this was implemented. After Lukashenko was declared the victor, she was held by Belarusian authorities and then forced into exile in Lithuania. Election observers consider the election fraudulent, and Lithuania has recognized Tsikhanouskaya as the legitimate leader of Belarus.

Since fleeing to Lithuania, Tsikhanouskaya has established an oppositional government. She established the Coordination Council in 2020 and the United Transitional Cabinet in 2022. As a representative of a democratic Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya has met with several world leaders in a diplomatic capacity to negotiate sanctions against Lukashenko's government and to deny him recognition as a legitimate head of state. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she has been an advocate of increased Western involvement while also warning that Russia's actions should not overshadow the dictatorship in Belarus. Tsikhanouskaya was tried in absentia by the Belarusian government in 2023 and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.