August 7, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has admitted to accepting €15,000 in cash from a security official before being forced to leave Belarus, following her refusal to accept the official presidential election results in August 2020.
Speaking on the Obychnoye Utro show, Cichanoŭskaja said she did not open the envelope containing the money until August 6, 2025, shortly after watching a propaganda film aired on ONT. The state-run TV station, linked closely to the Committee for State Security (KGB), raised the issue in an apparent effort to discredit the politician ahead of landmark opposition events scheduled to take place in Warsaw this weekend.
“I swear, I took out the money for the first time yesterday to take a picture,” she said.
“I never asked for any money, and I never asked to be taken out [of the country].”
Cichanoŭskaja said she repeatedly refused to accept the envelope, which was handed to her by Andrej Paŭlučenka, then head of the Operations and Analysis Center, a digital security agency. She eventually accepted it under duress.
She also noted that security agents secretly recorded the moment Paŭlučenka handed her the envelope. Footage of the exchange was shown in the ONT broadcast, with some of her remarks taken out of context, she claimed, to undermine her credibility.
During that encounter on August 10, 2020, security agents reportedly forced her to agree to leave the country, threatening violence against her and her children, who were in Lithuania at the time.
“Of course, it was a human decision [to leave the country],” she said. “I took my convictions with me from Belarus. . . . But my inner mother took the upper hand at that moment over Śviatłana the rookie politician. It was my responsibility to protect my children.”
She added that at the time, she did not know how to resist the pressure and intimidation.
Cichanoŭskaja also recalled that Paŭlučenka offered to let her speak with Alaksandar Łukašenka directly by phone, but she refused.
Until now, Cichanoŭskaja had declined to comment on claims that officials gave her cash before her departure from Belarus on August 11, 2020. She previously stated that she would speak publicly about the matter at a later date.
The 2020 presidential election was followed by months of mass protests against alleged vote rigging after Łukašenka claimed victory with 81 percent of the vote. The government cracked down on the protests and continues its campaign of repression to this day.
