Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Cichanouska said that it is necessary to prepare for any scenario. She reacted to rumors about the alleged illness of the country’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. He has not appeared in public since military parades in Moscow and Minsk on May 9, and on Sunday he was also absent from a ceremony honoring the national flag, fueling speculation about his deteriorating health.
Minsk did not comment on the speculation about Lukashenko. However, Belarusian state media published a photo on Monday that it said showed Lukashenko visiting the air force and air defense headquarters. The opposition website Naša Niva noticed that in this picture Lukashenko’s other hand is bandaged than in Moscow, which, according to the portal, probably indicates that he must be regularly connected to drips, the outlines of a kind of vest can be seen under Lukashenko’s jacket.
“There are many rumors about the health of the dictator Lukashenko. For us, this means only one thing: we should be well prepared for any scenario,” she wrote on Twitter Cichanouská, who lives in exile in Lithuania due to persecution by the Belarusian authorities. She added that it is necessary to turn Belarus on the path to democracy and prevent Russia from interfering. “We need the international community to be proactive and fast,” she urged the world.
The 68-year-old Lukashenko, who has ruled the Eastern European country with a heavy hand since 1994, has not appeared in public for six days, according to the media. Last week on Tuesday, together with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of several other post-Soviet countries, he watched a military parade in Moscow to mark the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany in World War II. Some Russian and Belarusian journalists noted that he looked tired in Red Square.
Lukashenko did not stay in Russia until the end of the celebrations and returned to Minsk. There he attended an event commemorating the end of World War II, but did not give a speech. According to Reuters, this happened for the first time during his administration. On Sunday, he was represented by the Prime Minister at the ceremony to honor the national flag. On Saturday, according to some media, Lukashenko visited a clinic on the outskirts of Minsk, which is used by the highest representatives of the country. According to one of the opposition leaders and former culture minister Pavel Latuška, Lukashenko is “apparently very seriously ill”.
According to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Svoboda station, Lukashenko has not participated in any other public events in the last three weeks, however, Minsk has not provided any official statement regarding his absences or possibly his health status. Lukashenko’s press department only said that it continues to work “with the documents”, the radio station writes.
Putin’s spokesman did not want to comment on Lukashenko’s condition on Monday. “Official reports must be followed. There were no such official reports from Minsk,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Minsk is considered Moscow’s closest ally. Although Belarus was not directly involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it provided Russia with its territory and airport.
Lukashenko has been in power since July 1994. The last time, according to official results, he won the election in 2020. But the opposition and Western countries consider this vote to be rigged, in fact, according to them, Cichanouská won. Dissatisfaction with the elections caused demonstrations of unprecedented proportions in the country. The security forces brutally suppressed the protests, arresting tens of thousands of people and beating thousands of them. Many Belarusians fled abroad.
