Czech Senate speaker proposes hosting Belarusian opposition in exile

Prague could host the Belarusian opposition government led by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, which is currently in exile in Vilnius, Czech Senate speaker Miloš Vystrčil said on Monday, recalling that it hosted the Belarusian government in exile about a century ago.

As part of her four-day visit to Prague, which ends on Tuesday, Tsikhanouskaya on Monday attended a memorial ceremony at the city’s Olšany cemetery to pay tribute to two Belarusian presidents in exile who served in the first half of the last century after Bolshevik Russia occupied their country. Vystrčil also attended the ceremony.

“I am convinced that even today it should be Prague, the Czech Republic, which will provide the Belarusian government-in-exile with a place to work for a free Belarus,” Vystrčil told the media.

According to him, the current regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has become even more dictatorial, usurping and brutal, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime backs it.

Earlier Monday, Tsikhanouskaya attended the opening of an Office of Democratic Forces of Belarus in Prague. She thanked Czechia and the entire free world for its help and support in the efforts of freedom-minded Belarusians to regain independence for their country and anchor it in European structures.

Before her departure on Tuesday, the Belarusian opposition leader, who has been living in exile in Lithuania after fleeing Belarus after running in the 2020 presidential elections, is set to meet other politicians.

(Ondřej Plevák | Euractiv.cz)

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