A Belarusian opposition politician living in Vilnius appeared on a regime propaganda programme on July 31, where she talked about alleged plans of other political refugees to strike Minsk with drones and infiltrate "sabotage groups".
"Their ultimate goal is to go to Belarus and cause harm", Olga Tishkevich told the regime-controlled ONT channel about the opposition based in Vilnius.
In the interview, she also spoke about the alleged paramilitary Belarusian units controlled by Lithuanian intelligence. According to Vytis Jurkonis, the head of Freedom House who has been working with Belarusian civil society for the past two decades, this is an attempt to show the threat of a supposedly paramilitary opposition and the hostile attitude of Belarus’ neighbours.
"The aim [of the regime] is to cover up its role as an aggressor in the war in Ukraine," said Jurkonis. "It also talks about the alleged divisions among the opposition and its utter desperation."
"Very predictably, this is in line with what the Belarusian regime has been trying to show its audience and its lobbyists in Europe over the last few years," Jurkonis added.
The independent Belarusian news outlet Euroradio published a detailed article about Tishkevich following her appearance at ONT. According to the journalists, she has been a member of the opposition Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Narodnaya Hramada" since 2010. After the repression following the 2020 protests, she fled to Poland and later moved to Lithuania, where she continued her opposition activities.
Tishkevich decided to return to politics more actively this year, trying to run in the elections to the opposition Coordination Council. She was removed from the ballot in May after Belarusian cyber activists leaked data showing she reported an activist to the KGB in 2018.
As Euroradio reported, she dedicated much of her time in Vilnius volunteering with Dapamoga and Nash Dom, organisations helping Belarusian and Ukrainian refugees. Olga Karach, the leader of the latter, was recently declared a threat to national security by the Lithuanian Migration Department and her asylum application was rejected.
Karach herself told journalists that Tishkevich "did not have access to sensitive information" and did little more than handing out items and sorting boxes. However, Tishkevich was an active member of the Belarusian diaspora and helped organise many protest actions in Vilnius. "She was everywhere," Karach told Euroradio.
Nataliya Kolegova, head of Dapamoga, also denied that Tishkevich had access to sensitive information about other Belarusian refugees and activists.
Yevgeny Vilsky, acting chairman of Narodnaya Hramada, told Euroradio that Tiskhevich "has done a lot for the party".
The party also investigated the circumstances surrounding her alleged collaboration with the KGB.
"[We found out that] she was in Moscow at the time," Vilsky said. "The message itself is very vague. [It was about] a person organising events at a specific address. We checked the address and it turned out to be a cemetery and there was no such house."
After she was barred from running for the Coordination Council, she was also expelled from the party, Vilsky added.
She denied having collaborated with the KGB.
Lithuanian citizens also targeted
According to Vilsky, Tiskevich disappeared at the beginning of June and her husband turned to the party for help. She eventually appeared in Belarus.
"I cannot say that she is a 100-percent agent, but judging by what is happening now, she probably is. Or maybe she was just [taken] to Belarus somehow," Vilsky told Euroradio.
However, this was not the first case of Belarusian opposition activists defecting to the regime. One of the first cases was back in the late 2020s when an IT worker returned to Minsk and started "deliberately trying to discredit the opposition", Jurkonis said.
Belarusians previously said the regime would try to persuade exiles to return home, offering them safety in exchange for public videos denouncing the opposition or spreading other disinformation narratives.
"We will probably find out her real motives one way or another later," said Jurkonis.
This case highlights continuing attempts by the KGB to infiltrate the Belarusian opposition, which should prompt its members to reevaluate security protocols, Jurkonis said.
At present, it’s not clear whether Lithuanian intelligence or law enforcement took action after activists revealed that Tishkevich had allegedly collaborated with the KGB.
LRT.lt has turned to the General Prosecutor’s Office and the State Security Department (VSD) for comment.
"Based on what she told the Belarusian propagandists, it seems that a conversation [with the Lithuanian secret services] took place one way or another," said Jurkonis.
But it’s not only the Belarusian citizens in Lithuania who are susceptible to recruitment attempts by the Minsk regime, he added.
"There have been such episodes not only with Belarusian citizens, but also with Lithuanians – including the lawyer Mantas Danielius, [and] Švenčionienė who once travelled to Minsk," Jurkonis said.
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