Latest news with #SvetlanaTikhanovskaya
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Belarus opposition leader calls for Radio Free Europe to stay on air
The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has called for US foreign broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) to keep broadcasting, despite its uncertain future. "Free media are our link between the truth, between the people in exile and the people in the country," she said in a speech in the Lithuanian parliament on Tuesday. "If these media die, they will be replaced by propaganda media." Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile in the European Union, was referring to the dramatic moves by the new administration in Washington. "RFE/RL is threatened with closure following funding cuts by US President Donald Trump's administration. Several European countries, led by the Czech Republic, are discussing ways in which RFE/RL can be preserved," she said. RFE/RL began broadcasting during the Cold War and has had an office in Lithuania from which it covers neighbouring Belarus since the beginning of 2023. The dissemination and use of its news has been a criminal offence in Belarus since Minsk declared the broadcaster an "extremist organization" in 2021. In August 2020, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, in office since 1994, was again declared the winner of the presidential election, unleashing mass protests that were brutally suppressed. The opposition, however, saw Tikhanovskaya as the real winner. The EU no longer recognizes Lukashenko as head of state. He is considered to be completely dependent on Russian President Vladimir Putin. RFE/RL's Vilnius office is staffed by Belarusian journalists who went into exile like Tikhanovskaya after the 2020 elections. They produce television and radio programmes in Belarusian, which are also broadcast online. The programmes are broadcast from the RFE/RL broadcasting centre in Prague, where the station has been based since 1995. The centre also makes programmes in Russian, Ukrainian and other languages, reaching nearly 50 million people in 23 countries every week, the broadcaster said. Since taking office, Trump has drastically cut funding for numerous government offices that focus on domestic and international affairs alike. This, combined with Washington's pivot to Russia, is deeply worrying to many in Europe, particularly as the Kremlin's war on Ukraine rages on.
Japan Times
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Belarus sentences Japanese man to seven years for spying
A court in Belarus has sentenced a Japanese citizen to seven years in prison for spying, prosecutors said Monday, in a case that officials in the Russian-allied country have not fully explained. The man, identified by prosecutors as Nakanishi Masatoshi, was detained in July last year, but Minsk announced the arrest only last September. A Minsk court found him guilty of "espionage activity," the office of Belarus' prosecutor general said. It said the court convicted him of cooperating with a "special service, security and intelligence agency of a foreign state, involving actions knowingly aimed at harming the national security" of Belarus. Prosecutors said the man carried out the espionage between 2018 and 2024. Belarus announced his arrest in a state television report last September that called him an "agent from the land of the rising sun," with the country's KGB intelligence service accusing him of collecting military information. The report said that he took photos of military facilities as well as railway infrastructure, and that he had traveled to the Ukrainian border. It showed footage of masked men in plainclothes carrying him into a van during his detention. The report also described him as a lawyer. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya criticized Masatoshi's sentencing, calling for his immediate release. "Like other political prisoners, he is being dehumanized by regime propaganda," she wrote on X. Belarus, ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, is a close ally of Moscow and has close ties to Beijing. Japan confirmed the arrest at the time, saying it was doing everything it could to help the man.
LBCI
26-01-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader calls election a 'farce'
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called Sunday's presidential election in Belarus a "farce" to keep current ruler Alexander Lukashenko in power. "What is happening in Belarus today is a farce," she told reporters in Warsaw, branding Lukashenko, "a criminal who has seized power" and calling for the release of all political prisoners and free and fair elections. AFP
