On Friday, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya delivered her first press conference since arriving in Vilnius on August 11. However, her first public appearance provided more questions than answers, according to experts in Lithuania.
"There can be several signs – maybe [she] doesn’t want to cause conflicts between somebody by saying too much,” said Laurynas Jonavičius from Vilnius University Institute of International Relations and Political Science.
Therefore, she may have opted to maintain a neutral position on several concrete questions, he added.
During the conference on Friday, Tikhanovskaya refrained from answering questions about the still unclear nature of her arrival in Lithuania. She also reiterated her call for other countries, including Russia, to respect the sovereignty of Belarus.
Tikhanovskaya also didn’t directly respond to questions about the sanctions against Minsk announced by Lithuania and the EU.
Read more: Tikhanovskaya in Vilnius: ‘I will return to Belarus when I feel safe’
It was “a very abstract [and] brief public appearance” that didn’t disclose any news, he said. “In essence, she didn’t say anything new [or] concrete.”
Marius Laurinavičius from Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis said the biggest discussions will surround the questions that Tikhanovskaya failed to answer. “That was the main problem,” he said.
It would also be unreasonable to speak about Tikhanovskaya as a leader, said Laurinavičius. “She is not a leader and we ourselves need to understand it.”
“She is not the leader of the revolution, she’s a symbol,” he said. However, “the revolution has also shown it doesn’t need one”, added Laurinavičius.
According to Vadimas Vileita, a political scientist and journalist, Tikhanovskaya doesn’t seek an active role in the ongoing Belarusian protests.
Meanwhile, other people who are now in Belarus have stepped up, including Maria Kolesnikova, as well as the former diplomat and theatre director Pavel Latushko.
“It’s likely that Tikhanovskaya remains as a symbol [...] who received the most votes during the previous [presidential] election,” he added.
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