Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Russian-Belarusian negotiations at the Palace of Independence in Minsk, Belarus, Friday, May 24, 2024. TALLINN, Estonia — A court in Belarus has sentenced a top opposition figure living in exile to 20 years in absentia, the latest in a
Viachorka lives in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where many opposition figures — including Tsikhanouskaya — fled after the disputed 2020 presidential election in which Tsikhanouskaya ran against authoritarian President That results set off months of protests that were unprecedented in their size and duration. Police arrested more than 35,000 people in connection with the protests, many of whom were beaten.