Siarhei Tsikhanouski

Siarhei Leanidavich Tsikhanouski (Belarusian: Сяргей Леанідавіч Ціханоўскі; Russian: Серге́й Леони́дович Тихано́вский), also known as Sergei Leonidovich Tikhanovsky,[2][3][4][5] is a Belarusian YouTuber, video blogger,[6] dissident, and pro-democracy activist.[6] He is known primarily for his activism against the regime of Belarus's president, Alexander Lukashenko.[6] In May 2020, he announced his intention of running for the 2020 presidential election, but he was arrested two days afterwards.[7] His wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya ended up as the main rival to Lukashenko in the contested elections.

Country for Life
Страна для жизни
Personal information
BornSiarhei Leanidavich Tsikhanouski
(1978-08-18) 18 August 1978
Horki, Byelorussian SSR[1], Soviet Union (now Horki, Belarus)
NationalityBelarusian
ResidenceMinsk, Belarus
OccupationYouTuber, politician
Spouse(s)Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (m. 2004)
Websitevk.com/strana888
YouTube information
Years active2019–present
Genre
Subscribers279 thousand
Total views38 million
Updated 13 Aug 2020

Early life and entrepreneurship

Tsikhanouski was born on 18 August 1978, in Horki, Homyel Region, Belarus,[1] and raised in Homyel.

Tsikhanouski studied at the physical and mathematical gymnasium, then graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Francysk Skaryna Homyel State University named after Frantsysk Skaryna. Later, he opened nightclubs in Homyel and Mazyr and organized concerts. He was engaged in video production, advertising and music videos.[8]

Country for Life YouTube channel

Tsikhanouski says he became a blogger almost by accident. He organized a farmstead near Homyel and faced bureaucratic hurdles from local, regional, and national officials, then spoke of his difficulties with journalists.[8]

The YouTube channel "Country for Life" (Страна Для Жизни)[9] was launched in 2019 and managed to attract 140 thousand subscribers during the year. The channel is dedicated to stories of ordinary Belarusians and real cases of entrepreneurs "which will help to build a country for life". Tsikhanouski shoots a video on social and political topics and talks about the problems of people – mainly in the Belarusian regions.

Together with his team in a car with the logo "Real News", Tsikhanouski spent more than a month driving around Belarus and interviewing with subscribers, who told him about the problems in the city and the country on camera. The most popular video on the channel (almost one million views as of 30 May 2020) is the story of a woman from the town of Hlybokaye about her life and her attitude toward Lukashenko. Tsikhanouski's YouTube channel also features video interviews with opposition politicians and businessmen.[10] On trips around Belarus, Siarhei Tsikhanouski was constantly followed by cars with people monitoring him, presumably employees of the Belarusian special services.[11]

Tsikhanouski's YouTube videos, which are critical of Lukashenko's rule, gained popularity.[9] Independent anti-Lukashenko bloggers (including Tsikhanouski) were seen by the government as a major threat to its rule, as a media alternative to television, newspapers, and radio, which are principally controlled by the Government, and many were targeted by the authorities.[12] By May 2020, Tsikhanouski's YouTube channel had garnered 140,000 subscribers;[9] by mid-July 2020, it had reached 243,000 subscribers, more than 12 times the number of subscribers to the state-run Belarus 24 satellite channel.[12]

Political activity

Anti-parade in Babruysk

On 9 May 2020, dozens of supporters of Syarhei Tsikhanouski 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.[13][14] Syarhei Tsikhanouski was detained at that moment.

2020 election and protests
Main articles: 2020 Belarusian presidential election and 2020 Belarusian protests

On 7 May, Syarhei Tsikhanouski announced on his YouTube channel that he intended to become a candidate for President of Belarus, challenging Alexander Lukashenko and his decades long rule.[15][9] 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 Tsikhanouski's car, and failed to present a certificate to confirm that they were police officers.[16] Prior to that, a crowd of Tsikhanouski's supporters in Mahilyow released a member of Tsikhanouski's team from the police.[17] A day later, allies of Tsikhanouski were arrested, including a blogger from Slutsk, Uladzimier Niaronski.[18] The vans of Tsikhanouski's team including Niaronski was chased by a road police and two vans with members of the police special forces AMAP.[19]

After the arrests, Siarhei Tsikhanouski'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 Tsikhanouski.[18] Viasna Human Rights Centre reports that at least 19 people who supported Tsikhanouski were brutally detained in Minsk.[18]

After his arrest, Syarhei Tsikhanouski 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, Tsikhanouski 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.[20][21]

After the election commission refused to register Tsikhanouski's candidacy, his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, decided to run herself. The initiative group of Svyatlana Tikhanouskaya was successfully registered by the Central Election Commission of Belarus.[22] Syarhei Tsikhanouski became the head of the initiative group to collect signatures for Svyatlana Tikhanouskaya's participation in the presidential election.

On 20 May, Syarhei Tsikhanouski was released from detention.[23][24] Tsikhanouski explained that the pressure of activists-supporters helped to achieve that. In an interview with Tsikhanouski 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.[25] RTVI also drew a parallel between Tsikhanouski and Navalny.[26]

Syarhei Tsikhanouski began his trips around the country with pickets to collect signatures for Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Tsikhanouski's pickets were very popular and gathered thousands of people(citation needed). The queue to the picket in Minsk near Kamarouski market was half a mile. Several thousand people also attended the picket of Tsikhanouski in Homyel. Syarhei Tsikhanouski announced that he was collecting signatures for fair elections in Belarus, without falsifications.

Syarhei Tsikhanouski actively uses the slogan "Stop, cockroach!" in his campaign, which is chanted by his supporters. The symbol of the Tsikhanouski's campaign is 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.[27] Euronews journalists called the events in Belarus as "Slippers Revolution" demonstrating the quote of the Belarusian activist Franak Viachorka with this phrase.[28]

Hrodna provocation and arrest

On 29 May 2020, Syarhei Tsikhanouski and at least eight other men were arrested in the city of Hrodna, in northwestern Belarus, while collecting signatures for Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya's presidential candidacy, and charged with "organization or preparation for a grave breach of public order."[29] Footage and witness accounts show that Tsikhanouski was detained following an incident after a woman aggressively followed and touched Tsikhanouski in an apparently deliberate attempted provocation; two police officers then "joined the woman in her pursuit of Syarhei Tsikhanouski" and a scuffle with police ensued.[29] According to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at least 13 people were detained, including two members of Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya's initiative group and three aides to Syarhei Tsikhanouski. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus said that they had opened a criminal case for supposed "violence against police officers."[30] Although Belarusian officials claimed that police were injured, there is no evidence in video footage of any such injury.[29]

In response to Siarhei Tsikhanouski's detention on 29 May 2020, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya 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.[31] Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Belarusian authorities' arrests of Tsikhanouski 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.[29][32] Amnesty stated that "The arrest and prosecution of Syarhei Tsikhanouski 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."[29]

References
  1. Mahilyow. Picket to collect signatures of presidential candidate Tsikhanouskaya. // Country for Life YouTube channel
  2. Belarus Opposition Leader Jailed After Joining Protest The New York Times, 1 June 2020
  3. World Digest: May 25, 2020 The Washington Post, 25 May 2020
  4. Prominent opposition figures arrested in Belarus as presidential election approaches Euronews, 3 June 2020
  5. Belarus' Lukashenko outlaws protests, arrests opponents DW, 1 June 2020
  6. Belarus Jails Several Opposition Figures in Widening Clampdown Ahead of Election, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (15 June 2020).
  7. Dixon, Robyn. "Belarus's Lukashenko jailed election rivals and mocked women as unfit to lead. Now one is leading the opposition". Washington Post. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  8. "I didn't expect people to believe it." Syarhei Tsikhanouski about his spouse, the opposition and plans for August 9 // Radio Liberty (in Belarusian)
  9. Detained Belarusian blogger set to be Lukashenka's rival in 2020 election, Belsat TV (7 May 2020).
  10. Detained blogger Tikhanovsky goes to the presidents of Belarus. Who is he? // Deutsche Welle (in Russian)
  11. Watching Siarhei Tsihanouski // Country for Life YouTube channel
  12. Belarus' Bloggers: A 'Bigger Threat' Than Political Parties For President Lukashenka?, Current Time TV (14 July 2020).
  13. Dozens of drivers held a parade in Bobruisk // Belsat TV (in Belarusian)
  14. About 15 people were detained in Babruisk after the AntiParad action // Radio Liberty (in Belarusian)
  15. Syarhei Tsikhanouski intends to become candidate for president of Belarus // Country for Life YouTube channel (in Russian)
  16. The apprehension of Siarhei Tsihanouski near Mahilyow // Country for Life YouTube channel
  17. Epic Fail of the Mahilyow Interior Ministry! People defended the Country for Life! // Arshynski, Mahilyow activist, YouTube channel
  18. New detentions of blogger Tsihanouski's supporters took place in different cities of the country // Viasna Human Rights Centre (in Belarusian)
  19. Two buses with AMAP and also road police // Belarus12stop YouTube channel
  20. Belarusian blogger Tikhanovsky got another 45 days of arrest in two days. // Deutsche Welle (in Russian)
  21. The CEC denied blogger Tikhanovsky the registration of the initiative group. Lukashenka was registered. // TUT.BY (in Russian)
  22. Svetlana Svetlana, wife of the blogger Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya: To become president "has been dreaming all my life". // Radio Liberty (in Belarusian)
  23. Belarusian blogger Tikhanousky has been released // Deutsche Welle (in Russian)
  24. "I see why this is done." What does blogger Tikhanousky say about his sudden release. // TUT.BY (in Russian)
  25. Exclusive DW: Blogger Syarhei Tsikhanouski about Lukashenka, elections, spouse's campaign, protests // Deutsche Welle (in Russian)
  26. Syarhei Tsikhanouski — Lukashenka's main opponent // Interview // RTVI (in Russian)
  27. The Tsikhanouski queue stretched for one kilometer for the picket. We find out why they shouted "Stop the cockroach" and what the brought slippers mean. // telegraf.by (in Russian)
  28. Belarus: Hundreds protest in Minsk against President Lukashenka // Euronews
  29. Belarus: Growing Crackdown on Human Rights Ahead of Presidential Election, Amnesty International (29 June 2020).
  30. The Ministry of Internal Affairs commented on Tikhanovsky's detention: two policemen were injured and a criminal case was initiated. // TUT.BY (in Russian)
  31. Tsikhanouskaya made a statement regarding her husband's detention: "The picket was legal and peaceful". // TUT.BY (in Russian)
  32. Belarus: Crackdown on Political Activists, Journalists: Arrests, Criminal Charges, Police Beatings Ahead of August 9 Presidential Vote, Human Rights Watch (July 30, 2020).
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