A prison of the mind: Lukashenka’s pursuit of exiled Belarusians

Just three years ago, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya lived a measured life in one of the sleepier parts of Minsk. But the 2020 Belarusian uprising against the dictatorship brought her to the political fore in an incredible way: she won the presidential election, was forced into emigration, and became the main voice of the Belarusian people. The de facto Belarusian authorities are now trying her in absentia for “treason, preparation of mass riots, seizing buildings, obstructing the work of the Central Election Commission, conspiring to seize state power, leading an extremist formation, inciting social hatred and discord”.

In 2021, the Belarusian KGB even labelled her a terrorist – and this is far from a complete list of ‘distinctions’ attributed to her by Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s associates. However, the example of Belarus’s democratic leader is not the only one. Political emigration from Belarus continues and adds to the hundreds of thousands of Belarusians already in exile.

The authorities have opened more than 11,000 criminal cases against their political opponents. These data are far from complete, since those who were lucky enough to escape the country in time are usually not included in the government-compiled statistics, so as not to spoil what the authorities claim to be the “high level of crime detection.” Dictatorships want to control and subjugate everything. Initially, the Lukashenka regime succeeded in subduing the situation inside the country through the use of repression – more than 30,000 people have spent time in prison on political grounds; 1,436 prisoners of conscience remain behind bars.