Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is a Belarusian political activist regarded as the national leader of democratic Belarusian forces. She stood for election in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election as the main opposition candidate after her husband, Sergei Tsikhanousky, the previous candidate, was arrested by Belarusian authorities. She is widely believed to have won the election, which was rigged to prolong the power of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Since August 2020, she has conducted her opposition activity in exile from Poland then Lithuania. In March 2023 she was sentenced in-absentia to a 15-year prison sentence by the Lukashenka pro-Russian dictatorship.