Boris Johnson has used a Downing Street meeting with Belarus’ exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya to assure her that the UK government is “very much on your side” and is “committed to supporting human rights and civil society” in the eastern European nation.
Ahead of the meeting, Ms Tikhanovskaya spoke to the BBC about the plight of Olympian Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, saying that Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorial regime was similar to Joseph Stalin’s. She said: “You have to play for your country but when you understand that country doesn't take care about you, it's difficult.”
As pro-democracy demonstrators gathered in central London, Ms Tikhanovskaya added that her aim was for “the British government to keep Belarus on the agenda, taking into consideration all the violence that's going on inside the country and the threat that the regime now is for the international community”.
