When Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks about Belarus today, she begins with a clarification: “We cannot talk about Belarus as a unified entity — we must separate the [Alexander] Lukashenko regime from the Belarusian people.” Five years after she was forced into exile following her run in the 2020 presidential election, a campaign that inspired historic pro-democracy protests, Tsikhanouskaya continues to challenge Lukashenko’s rule from her base in Lithuania. In an interview with The Moscow Times, she warns that with Russia’s war in Ukraine, Russian troops and nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus and ongoing provocations along Europe’s borders, the West can no longer afford to ignore Belarus — for the sake of its own security. Tsikhanouskaya is also working to raise awareness of of Belarus’ ongoing repressions. While Minsk released several dozen political prisoners this year — including her husband, opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski — at least 1,240 people remain behind bars, according to the human rights group Viasna. Yet even under what she calls “Stalinist-level repression,” Tsikhanouskaya insists that resistance persists, both inside the country and among the hundreds of thousands of Belarusians now living in exile. The Moscow Times: How do you assess Belarus-Russia relations in 2025? Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: First of all, we cannot talk about Belarus as a unified entity right now — we need to distinguish between the Lukashenko regime and Belarus itself, because the Lukashenko regime is completely loyal to Putin. Putin and Lukashenko share a symbiotic friendship, they need each other at this moment and use each other. For Putin, Lukashenko is a very cheap ally who, in exchange for political and some minor economic support, provides territory, infrastructure and anything else Russia might need for its purposes. As for the Belarusian people, especially after the start of the war in Ukraine, they have clearly made a geopolitical choice toward Europe.