Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Helga Schmid

discussed joint measures for the release of political prisoners, the access of international representatives to Belarusian prisons, and the prosecution of those guilty of crimes against the people

.

This was reported to BPN by the senior adviser of the democratic leader Franak Vyachorka.

According to him, Tsikhanovskaya and Shmid also talked about the condition of police prisoners

Maria Kalesnikova and Ales Bialiatski.

The democratic leader called for relaunching the OSCE Moscow mechanism for recording and investigating human rights violations in Belarus.

Tsikhanovskaya arrived in Lodz (Poland), where on December 1 and 2 the meeting of heads of foreign policy departments of the OSCE countries is taking place.

The meeting with Shmid was the first official one, so far the parties have held talks twice unofficially, Vyachorka said.

In addition, the adviser said, Tsikhanovskaya met with the Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

Robert Mantel

, had "short conversations" with the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Estonia, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and some other countries.

Tsikhanovskaya spoke at a discussion dedicated to Belarus, which was organized by Estonia and the USA with the support of 37 OSCE member countries.

She told the stories of Kolesnikova, Bialiatskyi, her husband Syarhei Tikhonovskyi, volunteer Pavel "The Giant" and his mother Natalya Suslava.

She called on the OSCE to seek access to political prisoners, to demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Belarusian territory, to support the restart of the Moscow mechanism in relation to the Lukashenka regime.

"Michael Carpenter, head of the US delegation to the OSCE, said that the proposed steps will be considered and implemented," Vyachorka said.

Who is Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya

Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya is a Belarusian politician, a former candidate for the presidency of Belarus.

Now is in Lithuania.

Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya

  • Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was born in 1982 in Mikashevichi (Brest Oblast).

  • On May 15, 2020, after the Central Election Commission refused to register Svetlana's husband, the imprisoned leader of the "Strana dlya zhizni" campaign blogger Sergey Tsikhanovsky, Svetlana submitted documents for the registration of the initiative group on her own behalf.

    On May 20, her group was registered.

    On May 29, the head of her election headquarters, Syarhei, was arrested again.

  • Tsikhanovskaya was registered as a presidential candidate on July 14, 2020.

  • After the arrest of presidential contender Viktar Babarika and the flight abroad of another contender, Valero Tsapkala, their headquarters merged with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's headquarters.

    The joint headquarters conducted a successful election campaign with thousands of rallies in large and small cities of Belarus under white-red-white flags.

  • According to the official data of the CEC, in the elections Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya won 10.09%, and Alexander Lukashenko - 80.08%.

    Tsikhanovskaya refused to recognize these results and on August 10 personally went to the CEC to appeal them.

  • The politician did not return from the Central Committee.

    The contact with her disappeared, a few hours later in the lobby of the Central Committee she informed that she had "made a decision" and left in an unknown direction.

    On August 11, it became known that she is in Lithuania.

    Two video messages of Tsikhanovskaya were published, one of which was recorded in the Central Election Commission after a conversation with two high-ranking security forces, in which Tsikhanovskaya urges the demonstrators not to go out into the streets.

    On August 11, the leadership of Lithuania stated that Tsikhanovskaya recorded the appeals under pressure and blackmail.

  • A few days after the actual "deportation" to Lithuania, Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya declared that she was taking on the role of "national leader".

  • On August 18, on the initiative of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the Coordination Council for the Transition of Power was established in Belarus.

  • On September 10, 2020, the Seimas of Lithuania voted to recognize Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya as the elected leader of Belarus.

  • Since September 2020, Tsikhanovskaya has made working visits to dozens of countries of the world and met with their leaders.

    Among them are French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, High Representative of the European Union Joseph Burrell, US President Joe Biden, and others.

  • Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya contacted active people in Belarus during the protests of 2020 and 2021, appointed her representatives to maintain solidarity with social and professional groups in the country.

  • Tsikhanovskaya advocated holding new transparent presidential elections in Belarus under international control and actively called on the international community to participate in the organization of negotiations with the current leadership of Belarus.

  • For two years, Tsikhanovskaya, her headquarters and initiatives related to her helped political prisoners, took part in a number of humanitarian and political initiatives.

  • She opposed the falsified constitutional referendum initiated by Lukashenko in 2022.

  • In February 2022, Tsikhanovskaya condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine and the complicity of A. Lukashenka's regime in it, and in March 2022, she founded the Belarusian Anti-War Movement.

  • In April 2022, Tsikhanovskaya stated at the UN Security Council conference that "the south of Belarus is actually under Russian occupation."

  • Tsikhanovskaya conducted successful negotiations with the Polish government and achieved special conditions for the arrival and legalization of Belarusians who disagree with Lukashenka's regime.

  • In August 2022, Svetlana Tsikhanovskaya created the United Transitional Cabinet and named four of its representatives.

  • In November 2022, Tsikhanovskaya called herself the president-elect for the first time