Sergei Tikhanovsky

On 9 May 2020, dozens of supporters of Sergei Tikhanovsky held an "Anti-parade" in Babruisk to express their disagreement with the Victory Day Parade in Minsk during the COVID-19 pandemic. The protest parade took the form of a protest motor rally. Police detained about 15 people after the motor rally.[10][11] Sergei Tikhanovsky was detained at that moment.

On 7 May, Sergei Tikhanovsky announced on his YouTube channel that he intended to become a candidate for President of Belarus, challenging Alexander Lukashenko and his decades long rule.[12][6] Prior to this event, on 6 May, he was detained by the Belarusian militsyya (police) in the vicinity of Mahilyow; the police threatened to break the glass of Tikhanovsky's car, and failed to present a certificate to confirm that they were police officers.[13] Prior to that, a crowd of Tikhanovsky's supporters in Mahilyow released a member of Tikhanovsky's team from the police.[14] A day later, allies of Tikhanovsky were arrested, including a blogger from Slutsk, Uladzimier Niaronski.[15] The vans of Tikhanovsky's team including Niaronski was chased by a road police and two vans with members of the police special forces AMAP.[16]

After the arrests, Sergei Tikhanovsky's supporters held a series of protests throughout Belarus. According to the Radio Liberty, 20 to 30 people were detained in Homyel, the home town of Tikhanovsky.[15] Viasna Human Rights Centre reports that at least 19 people who supported Tikhanovsky were brutally detained in Minsk.[15]

After his arrest, Sergei Tikhanovsky was held at an temporary detention center Homyel, nominally due to participation in the rally in Minsk on 19 December 2019 against the integration of Belarus with Russia. He was ultimately sentenced to 15 days' imprisonment: 15 days of arrest for "participating in an unauthorized protest action" in December 2019, and 30 days for meeting with subscribers to his YouTube channel in Orsha and Brest. After his detention, Tikhanovsky announced in his YouTube channel about his intention to run for president of Belarus. However, the Central Election Commission of Belarus refused to register the initiative group to nominate him.[17][18]

After the election commission refused to register Tikhanovsky's candidacy, his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, decided to run herself. The initiative group of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was successfully registered by the Central Election Commission of Belarus.[19] Sergei Tikhanovsky became the head of the initiative group to collect signatures for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's participation in the presidential election.

On 20 May, Sergei Tikhanovsky was released from detention.[20][21] Tikhanovsky explained that the pressure of activists-supporters helped to achieve that. In an interview with Tikhanovsky after the release, Deutsche Welle drew parallels between the Belarusian blogger and Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny and the Ukrainian actor Volodymyr Zelensky, who became the president of Ukraine.[22] RTVI also drew a parallel between Tikhanovsky and Navalny.[23]

Against all COVID-19 recommendations, and without any authorisation from Belarus health authorities, Sergei Tikhanovsky began his trips around the country with pickets to collect signatures for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Tikhanovsky's pickets were very popular and gathered thousands of people. The queue to the picket in Minsk near Kamarouski market was half a mile. Several thousand people also attended the picket of Tikhanovsky in Homyel. Sergei Tikhanovsky announced that he was collecting signatures for fair elections in Belarus, without falsifications.

Sergei Tikhanovsky actively uses the slogan "Stop, cockroach!" in his campaign, which is chanted by his supporters. The symbol of the Tikhanovsky's campaign is the slipper. The slogan "Stop, cockroach!" refers to the fairy tale "Cockroach" by Soviet poet Kornei Chukovsky about how the "mustached cockroach" intimidated all animals and became their ruler. Apparently, this slogan is a reference to the current leadership of Belarus. Slippers are supposedly a traditional means of pest control.[24] Euronews journalists called the events in Belarus as "Slippers Revolution" demonstrating the quote of the Belarusian activist Franak Viachorka with this phrase.[25]

On 29 May 2020, Sergei Tikhanovsky and at least eight other men were arrested in the city of Hrodna, in northwestern Belarus, while collecting signatures for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's presidential candidacy, and charged with "organization or preparation for a grave breach of public order."[3] Footage and witness accounts show that Tikhanovsky was detained following an incident after a woman aggressively followed and touched Tikhanovsky in an apparently deliberate attempted provocation; two police officers then "joined the woman in her pursuit of Sergei Tikhanovsky" and a scuffle with police ensued.[3] According to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at least 13 people were detained, including two members of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's initiative group and three aides to Sergei Tikhanovsky. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus said that they had opened a criminal case for supposed "violence against police officers."[26] Although Belarusian officials claimed that police were injured, there is no evidence in video footage of any such injury.[3]

In response to Sergei Tikhanovsky's detention on 29 May 2020, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya demanded the immediate release of her husband, condemning "the 'dirty' provocation" against him; declaring that "the picket was legal and peaceful in nature; and calling the arrest a politically motivated violation of her constitutional rights.[27] Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Belarusian authorities' arrests of Tikhanovsky and the broader crackdown by Belarusian authorities on opposition figures, journalists, and bloggers ahead of the 2020 president election, including arbitrary arrest and detention and pretextual criminal charges.[3][28] Amnesty stated that "The arrest and prosecution of Sergei Tikhanovsky and others detained alongside him are arbitrary, unwarranted and politically motivated" and considers the group to be "prisoners of conscience, as they are detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights."[3]

On 29 September 2020, Tikhanovsky's personal Telegram account noted that his prison sentence in Zhodino had been extended by two more months. The decision was rendered without a hearing.[29][30]

On 10 October 2020, Lukashenko spoke with the imprisoned Tikhanovsky and fellow candidate Viktar Babaryka in a four-hour meeting concerning changes to the Constitution. At this time, Tikhanovsky and Babaryka remain in custody.[31][32][33]

On November 30, it became known that Tikhanovsky's detention was extended for another 3 months. He is accused of a serious crime that carries a sentence of up to 12 years. Pending his conviction, he can be held in custody for up to 18 months.[34][35][36][37][38]