Natalia Radzina: New Leaders Will Emerge In Belarus

14.09.2025, 22:24
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Belarusians have understood and realized a lot of things in recent years.

Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of the website Charter97.org, was a guest of YouTube channel of the well-known journalist Evgeny Kiselev.

One of the topics of conversation was the book Natallia Radzina's Belarus: Journalist vs. Dictator, which was recently published by ISIA Media Verlag (Leipzig), which was recently published by ISIA Media Verlag (Leipzig, Germany):

- This book was written by Yuri Felshtinsky, a well-known American historian of Russian origin living in the United States. He is known as the author of several books on modern Russian history. He gained great fame as co-author of the book "The FSB Blows Up Russia", written with the late Alexander Litvinenko, the man who was poisoned with polonium in 2010 in London, shortly after that book was published. What is this book about?"

- The book is about you, Eugene, among others. Because I tell in it about my authorities in journalism and name you, because as a young journalist, a student of BSU journalism department, I watched your programs, interviews, learned from them, because it is the highest pilotage in journalism. And it is a great happiness and honor for me to take part in your programs.

And the book itself turned out in a completely unexpected way for me. We have been friends with Yuri Felshtinsky for a long time. At every meeting, of course, we talk a lot about Belarus. I often tell him about my friends who are in prison, about the situation with political prisoners, about how Lukashenko came to power in general, how the opposition has been fighting all these years.

In the end Yuri said: "Look, let me write a book about Belarus. I've written a lot about Russia, I've written about Ukraine, but I haven't written anything about Belarus. And since it is a strategically important country, and the current war confirms it, I think it is necessary to address this topic. But let me write this book in an unusual way, through the prism of your separate life."

We started to work, and the result is a book, which I hope will be interesting to the reader. Through it you can understand more what kind of country my native Belarus is, learn that we are historically Europe, learn what kind of relations we had with imperial Russia over the centuries, how Lukashenko came to power, because many people don't remember it anymore. To read how the opposition has been fighting all these years. There is also a lot about 2020, there is a certain analysis of the situation. Of course, we are thinking about the prospects, what the future holds for Belarus. I very much hope that, of course, my country will become a member of the European Union and NATO.

- The subtitle of this book is "Journalist against the dictator."

- I became a journalist in 1996, it was a critical year in the history of Belarus. The dictatorship began. Lukashenko usurped power then, dispersed the legally elected parliament - the Supreme Soviet, created a pocket "national assembly", which is still in place today. Then my whole life took place against the background of the dictatorship.

- Did you go to prison?

- Of course, after the "elections" of 2010 I was in the KGB prison and was accused of organizing mass riots, I was threatened with up to 15 years in prison, and I had to escape from Belarus.

A lot is written about my escape in the book. Because it was quite unusual: I had to escape without documents, without a passport, and it was not easy.

- And how did you manage to get out of prison? I was released from prison on my own recognizance. In fact - house arrest, where I was also under the supervision of the KGB and the police. I had to flee on the eve of the trial, because it was quite clear that I would not be allowed to work freely in Belarus.

- Here is a question I have. In 2020, during the August "elections" stolen by Lukashenko, it happened quite unexpectedly that instead of one of the brightest leaders of the Belarusian opposition movement, the popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was jailed, his wife Svetlana took part in the presidential election. And, apparently, she received the support of the majority of voters and became the elected president of Belarus.

Now her husband has been released from prison, Sergei Tikhanovsky is at large. There is a feeling that this leader of the Belarusian opposition is not heard and not seen, as well as Svetlana Tikhanovski is not heard and not seen.

- Sergei Tikhanovski is still somewhat different from Svetlana. This man was also not the leader of the opposition, but he was a brave, courageous blogger who challenged the dictator not in August, but much earlier. He started his campaign in the fall of 2019. And I first noticed him as a blogger. I saw that this man travels around the regions, meets with different people, records interviews, clips and talks about how the real Belarus differs from the one shown by propagandists on TV.

Then Sergei Tikhanovsky, having already united with the real leader of the Belarusian opposition Nikola Statkevich, with the activists of the civil campaign "European Belarus", who actively worked on the organization of protests, began to jointly hold meetings with Belarusians in the regions and then announced their participation in the election campaign. Sergei was arrested together with Nikolai Statkevich at the end of May 2020, and this, of course, led to the defeat of the revolution, because these would have been the leaders who would have gone all the way in that situation of August 2020.

Now, after five years, Sergei Tikhanovsky came out of prison a deeply traumatized man, you have to understand that, because for five years he was in very harsh conditions, he spent most of his time in solitary confinement, and of course we saw that he lost a lot of weight, and today this man is obviously exhausted physically and mentally. I wouldn't assess his actions right now in any critical way. So far, as far as I know, Sergei Tikhanovsky has made some, let's say, silly statements, which caused a negative reaction both from the Belarusians and even from the Lithuanian leadership.

He is currently meeting with the Belarusian diaspora in the United States. I wish Sergei a speedy recovery, and then we'll see who will be the leader of the Belarusian opposition.

- Will his wife give up the position of the leader of the Belarusian opposition, if she is such?

- She is not, Eugene, we've already discussed it. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is rather a nominal, decorative figure, who represents the Belarusian opposition. But she is not a leader, of course.

- But she is accepted in European capitals?

- As a representative of the Belarusian opposition she is accepted, it is natural, but she is not a leader neither for the Belarusian emigration, nor for the Belarusians inside the country. This I declare to you responsibly.

- I know that you are a longtime critic of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. I would just like the viewers to understand what is the main reason for your position.

- First of all, it was recently confirmed that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya took money from the special services before leaving the territory of Belarus. And she confirmed this information. Belarusian TV showed a hidden footage, where the head of the Belarusian special service, Operative Analytical Center under the Lukashenko administration, Lieutenant General Pavlyuchenko, hands her an envelope with 15 thousand euros.

Let me remind you, Lukashenko has been talking about it since the fall of 2020, then repeatedly repeating: we took her to Lithuania and gave her the money. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya did not comment on this information for five years, as long as she was not asked.

It was obvious to me that she took this money, because I knew her, and in the summer of 2020 we were actively communicating. I saw that this person was not ready for decisive actions and for confrontation, including confrontation with Lukashenko's special services. It is surprising that for five years she kept silent about how she was taken out and on what conditions she left.

On the other hand, when this movie was shown, it became quite clear why events developed in such a way after her departure from Belarus to Lithuania. You remember, we repeatedly talked about it: a plan was announced to go out on weekends. I repeatedly criticized this plan, because revolutions are not made on weekends. And these senseless walks with placards and flowers on Sundays are not daily protests in front of the Government House, not the demand for live broadcasting near the Belarusian TV, not the protests in front of prisons, where people were tortured and held at that time. Instead, there were some masquerade marches, which ended in the failure of this revolution, although an unprecedented number of people protested. About a million Belarusians took to the streets in August 2020.

I personally asked Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, when she had already left for Vilnius, to call for the organization of a nationwide strike. If all businesses had stopped then, in August 2020, the regime could have collapsed. She refused to do it. And I already had a suspicion at that time that Tikhanovskaya was under control. I stopped all communication with her. You already know how things developed further: thousands of repressed people.

- After all, she called on her supporters to stop taking to the streets, if my memory serves me correctly.

- She did not call for a strike for a long time. Then there were only marches on Sundays. Then a one-day strike was called in October 2020 - too late. And that strike ended with only increased repression. Entrepreneurs who closed their businesses, cafes, stores, people who didn't come to work at that point were immediately repressed. There were very many such steps. This is all there, by the way, in the book.

Tikhanovskaya did not call for economic sanctions against Lukashenko's regime for a very long time. Economic sanctions were introduced, in my opinion, too late - already in May 2021. And only thanks to Lukashenko himself, who then boarded a Ryanair airplane with blogger Roman Protasevich on board.

And how many people had already been jailed by that time, sentenced to huge prison terms? And there were already people who had been killed! Because people were killed both during the protests and after them.

- There was a moment when a pro-government Telegram channel posted an appeal where Tikhanovskaya, without raising her eyes, read a statement on a piece of paper, in which she called for an end to the protests.

- Yes, several times. The first time this statement was read at the Central Election Commission, where she went for some reason the day after the presidential election on August 10. Together with her there went Maria Kolesnikova and a lawyer from Babariko's headquarters Maksim Znak. As a result, Tikhanovska was locked in the office of CEC chairwoman Lidiya Yermoshina, and KGB officers were clearly there. As a result of this conversation, she recorded a video where she said that she was a "weak woman" and urged people to disperse.

But the most interesting thing is that approximately the same appeal, the second one, was recorded by her already on the territory of Lithuania, when she was taken there by the KGB. Why was it necessary to record this second appeal to the Belarusians with the call to disperse? How could it not be the fulfillment of some agreements, isn't it?

- Of course, she could have been blackmailed, she could have been threatened that something would happen to her husband, right? Because she called me as soon as she arrived in Lithuania in the morning. And I asked her directly: "Is it true that you were threatened by Sergei, who is in custody?" She replied, "No, it's not true. They just told me that I had blood on my hands, that people died because of me. But it wasn't me who organized these protests, it was you all from Poland and Lithuania." After that I realized that it was useless to talk at all, because the man was speaking the words of some Belarusian propagandists.

All this doesn't matter now. There will be new leaders. Yes, unfortunately, we have lost time. But the worst thing, of course, is that we have lost people, because so many people died during the protests and in prisons. And there are thousands of political prisoners in prisons right now. Not 1,300, not 1,400, as Donald Trump writes, many more.

But through these prisons, through this repression, a nation is being formed. A nation is being formed that is beginning to appreciate freedom and to understand what a dictatorship is. And to realize that when this dictatorship is just beginning to emerge, it must be destroyed immediately, it must be fought against immediately. Because if you cowardly wait for 25-26 years (and in 2020 Lukashenko's regime had been in power for 26 years), this dictator will turn into such a monster that will destroy you. That's why I believe in the Belarusian people, I believe that Belarus will be free. And all these people, frankly speaking, will fade into history.

- Natalia, thank you very much for this conversation. My friends, I remind you that my interlocutor in this part of the channel's work was the Belarusian journalist, activist of the Belarusian political emigration Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of the site "Charter-97".

Besides, I draw your attention: there is a new book by the American historian of Russian origin Yuri Felshtinsky, which is called "Natallia Radzina's Belarus. Journalist vs. Dictator." This book, as far as I understand, is already on sale in Europe. You can buy it on the Internet and you can buy it in stores that sell literature in Russian in European countries.

You can buy the book "Natallia Radzina's Belarus: Journalist vs. Dictator" in Russian on the following sites:

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