„It is her personal decision to choose what she wants,“ the head of government said in an interview with Delfi.
„I would see neither added value nor loss. Our contact with the Belarusian opposition is very close, and not only with Sviatlana. The opposition is not just Sviatlana; the opposition is many more people. I am glad that the last leaders who also participated in the presidential elections were released. I think this is very important,“ the prime minister emphasised.
As announced, following the news that Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her team would be moving from Lithuania to Poland, her diplomatic advisor, Denisas Kučinskis, confirmed on Thursday that part of the office would be relocated to Warsaw.
Susiję straipsniai
However, he assured that the office's activities in Lithuania would continue and that the decision to expand activities in Warsaw was due to the changed security situation.
ELTA recalls that Lithuania decided last October to reduce the security measures protecting the Belarusian opposition leader. Her protection was transferred to the Criminal Police Bureau. There was no shortage of criticism of this decision in the public sphere.
Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said that interpretations appearing in the public sphere, claiming that the decision to reduce the level of physical protection for the Belarusian opposition leader based in Vilnius also signifies a change in the country's foreign policy, are damaging to Lithuania.
Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania after the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, which the West considers illegitimate. According to the Belarusian opposition, Tsikhanouskaya won the unfair election, not Aliaksandr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994.