Around 50 people gathered outside Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry in Vilnius on Friday to protest against the presence of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s office in Lithuania's capital.
The demonstration followed the ministry’s announcement that it would not consider calls to revoke the office’s accreditation or to halt funding for certain expenses and activities, MP Vytautas Sinica, who organised the protest, told reporters.
Sinica said Lithuania had hoped its support for Tsikhanouskaya and her team would help to build a more independent, pro-Western and democratic neighbour, less dependent on Russia.
"Looking back today, we see that Lithuania has achieved nothing in that direction and this approach hasn't worked. Lithuania should look for new ways," he said.
The nationalist National Alliance (NS), where Sinica serves as vice-chairman, had distanced itself from the protest ahead of time.
Mantas, a 41-year-old company manager, told BNS he attended the rally in response to comments by Tsikhanouskaya’s husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, about creating an autonomous Belarusian district in Lithuania.
"I'm here to express my civic stance and support for the only member of the Seimas who responded to Tsikhanouski's publicly stated goals that would violate Lithuania's territorial integrity," he said.
Tsikhanouski later said his remarks had been misunderstood, explaining that he had only been referring to creating business hubs for Belarusian entrepreneurs.
Protesters carried signs reading "Support comes with responsibility – Tsikhanouskis, get out of Lithuania", "Belarusians are like boomerangs – why do they keep returning to Batka?" and "It's time to end Lukashenko's project".
A Belarusian man, draped in his country’s historic white-red-white flag, was also at the site of protest. He told reporters that frequent calls for Belarusians to "get out of Lithuania" make life in the country increasingly difficult.
"This is an attitude we don't deserve," he said, holding a sign reading "Thank you, Lithuania, for your support". He added that such rallies fuel growing hostility towards Belarusians in Lithuania.
Sinica is urging the Foreign Ministry to revoke the accreditation of Tsikhanouskaya’s Belarusian Democracy Representative Office, stop its state funding, and respond firmly to any statements by Belarusian regime or opposition figures that, in his view, run counter to Lithuania’s national interests, undermine its statehood or distort its history.
Mindaugas Stonys, head of the ministry’s Strategic Communication Department, said before the protest that Lithuania remained committed to backing Belarus’ democratic forces.
"We can only remind you that Lukashenko's regime has imprisoned more than 1,200 political prisoners. Therefore, a free and democratic Belarus is in the interest of Lithuania's national security," he said.
According to the Migration Department, around 52,000 Belarusian citizens currently hold residence permits in Lithuania, with numbers rising sharply after the disputed 2020 presidential election in Belarus, when Alexander Lukashenko declared himself the winner and launched a crackdown on protests demanding free, fair and democratic elections.
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