SCEEUS roundtable with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

On 11 May 2026, Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies hosted a roundtable with the leader of the Belarusian Democratic Forces in exile and the Head of the United Transitional Cabinet, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The seminar focused on the conditions for the opposition to operate in exile and the prospects for regime change and democratization in Belarus in the shadow of Russia’s war in Ukraine and an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment.  

Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya argued, should not be viewed as Russia’s “backyard”, and political change in Belarus can emerge independently of developments in Moscow. She emphasized that European sanctions targeting the Belarusian regime are having an effect and urged European leaders to increase pressure on the Lukashenko regime, and that the democratic forces are prepared for a swift and peaceful transition of power in Belarus.