Belarus election: Exiled dissident warns Lukashenko intensifying ‘brutal repression’

The exiled leader of the Belarusian opposition is advising people in the Eastern European nation not to protest against elections in January, saying the vote is a ritual designed to give false legitimacy to President Alexander Lukashenko. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020 and later went into exile, said in an interview that she feared a crackdown and intensification of the country’s “brutal repression” if people went out into the streets.