OREANDA-NEWS. The presidential candidate of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya left the republic, now she is in Lithuania. This was reported by the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Linas Linkevicius. “Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is safe, she is in Lithuania,” he wrote on Twitter. On the air of the national radio LRT, the Minister said that before arriving in Vilnius, Tsikhanouskaya “was detained in Belarus and spent about seven hours in detention.”

On August 10, Tsikhanouskaya claimed during a press conference that she was not going to leave Belarus. “I see no reason why I should be arrested, and I’m not going to leave,” she explained.

Protesters in Belarus were previously supported by the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda. He said that the European Union should discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions on Minsk due to the repression of the opposition.

On August 9, presidential election was held in Belarus. The winner is Alexander Lukashenko, who has been holding the presidency for 26 years. The opposition did not recognize the election results. Against this background, mass protests began in Minsk and other cities. Law enforcement agencies are harshly suppressing the actions.