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Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarussian opposition leader, who now lives in exile in Vilnius, has warned Lithuanian officials about the souring relations. / bne IntelliNews
Yesterday’s Belarusian heroes become today’s foes in Lithuania
Linas Jegelevicius in Vilnius
Just three years ago, following a brutal crackdown on democratic forces in Belarus after the rigged presidential election, thousands of Belarusians fled to neighbouring Lithuania, mostly Vilnius, the capital city, where they were embraced wholeheartedly.
Today, their reception has become decidedly frostier, with rightwing politicians – already suspicious of Belarus for historical reasons – seeing them as a potential threat to Lithuania’s national security.
They now argue Belarusians should
be treated more like Russians than Ukrainians when they come to the country. Lithuania has taken one of the toughest stances towards Russia in the
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EU, and has been one of the strongest backers of Ukraine.
Several Belarusians have now had their claims for refugee status refused.
“My friend was denied refugee status two weeks ago, after almost two years of waiting. He cannot return to Belarus, because he would be immediately arrested there. He thinks about leaving,” Andrey Erguine, who also fled Minsk for Vilnius, told bne IntellIiNews.
Nataliya Kolegova, head of the Belarusian NGO Dapamoga, told bne IntelliNews
that there is distinct fatigue in Lithuania about aiding the refugees.
“When the authoritarian Belarusian regime cracked down on protests of
democratically-minded Belarusians in late 2022, Lithuanian politicians sounded genuinely embracive and supportive, when talking of our common history.
I remember the Lithuanian PM Ingrida Simonyte’s words then ‘We helped you, are helping and will always help. You just need to be patient’. But it seems that Lithuania has run out of patience with us. We’ve become Lithuania’s pain.”
The most high-profile case of denied asylum is Olga Karach, a prominent Belarusian activist whose Vilnius-based NGO Nash Dom (Our House) has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Karach has recently been denied asylum in Lithuania due to her alleged links
to the Russian intelligence service. However, she will remain in the country