Vladimir Putin with his Belarus counterpart Aleksandr Lukashenko (Image: Getty)
Belarusian dictator has been warned that his regime is “crumbling” and that opposition to Russian annexation is growing among his political elites and the country as a whole.
Exit polls on Sunday confirmed that the Belarusian President had secured a seventh term in power, winning a massive 87.6% of the vote.
However, the elections have been dismissed as a “sham” and as being neither “free nor fair” by Western governments and opposition groups.
Although four “opposition candidates” appeared on the ballot, all were loyal to , who has led Belarus for more than 30 years.
heads an Belarusian opposition government in exile and continues to fight to free her country from tyranny.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is the leader of a Belarus government in exile (Image: John Varga)
She is widely believed to have won the 2020 Presidential elections in Belarus, but was forced to flee after a crackdown following falsification of the vote.
The opposition leader told that democratic change was still possible in Belarus.
“I see that people are not giving up despite all the repressions and fear inside,” she said.
“We continue to fight. Changes in Belarus can come faster than changes in because our society is more consolidated and pro-European.”
Much has been made of a creeping Russian colonisation of , with the two countries forging ever deeper military and economic ties.
10,000s of people took to the streets to protest against the falsifications of 2020 elections (Image: Getty)
Analysts from US think tank the Institute for the Study of War wrote in a recent report that the Kremlin was in the end-game of a “decades-long strategic effort to de facto annex Belarus”.
Tikhanovskaya insisted would never succeed in annexing , adding that any attempt to do so would only undermine Lukashenko’s grip on power.
She said: “It’s impossible for the Russian imperial machine to swallow a nation that is strengthening its national identity that is now very devoted to Belarusian culture, history and language.
“If Lukashenko on paper will join or will make our country an appendix to , then the resistance to will only increase.”
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She added: “Believe me, around Lukashenko, there are many politicians who want to save .
“They want to save the country, you know, and at the moment of opportunity, all of those people will be on our side.
“Already we have received so much sensitive information from the regime. There is absolute mistrust in the system. The system is crumbling.”
Tikhanovskaya is hopeful that will throw his support behind their cause and is planning to build bridges to the new administration.
She argued the best way to gain the attention of the new US President was by emphasising the security implications of allowing Lukashenko to stay in power.
“One of the main messages of President Trump was to stop aggressors and tyranny,” she explained.
“And we, Belarusian people, Ukrainians, we are fighting against this tyranny.
“So, look on Belarus, not only as a country where we should help to build democracy, but as a strategically important country without which there will be no peace and security in the whole region.”