Międzynarodowa działalność Demokratycznej Białorusi w czasie kryzysu legitymizacji reżimu autorytarnego (2020-2023)
International activities of Democratic Belarus during the legitimacy crisis of the authoritarian regime (2020-2023)

Summary/Abstract: The presented publication analyses two interrelated trends in international relations on the example of Belarus. The first trend is the crisis of international legitimacy of the authoritarian regime that blatantly rigged the 2020 presidential election and violently suppressed mass peaceful protests against the lawlessness of the authorities. The second is the aspiration of the democratic forces, led by President‑elect Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, to become a fully‑fledged representative of the Belarusian people in the external arena. While in the first months after the rigged elections the Belarusian issue was present in the centre of world politics, the attention paid to the situation in and around Belarus decreased as protest activity inside the country decreased. This became particularly evident after Russia launched a large‑scale aggression against Ukraine, which was morally and materially supported by the dictatorship in Minsk. The reduced attention of international actors on the eastern European country did not stop the active activities of Democratic Belarus. The main support of the opposition forces became the Belarusian emigration, which after the events of 2020 took on a mass character. Its main centres are concentrated in Lithuania and Poland. The main opposition structures are also active there. Over the past three years, specific formats for the international activities of Democratic Belarus have taken shape, including the creation of foreign representations of the Joint Transitional Cabinet in other countries, support for the activities of so‑called people’s embassies and the accreditation of foreign diplomatic representatives to the Cabinet. Among the obvious diplomatic successes of the Office of Svetlana Tikhanouskaya and the Transitional Cabinet is the creation of the following in September 2022. Council of Europe Contact Group on Cooperation with Belarusian Democratic Forces and Civil Society, and the subsequent adoption by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly of a resolution on support for Belarusians in exile.

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