Alaksandar Milinkievič dies at 79

August 11, Pozirk. Alaksandar Milinkievič, a towering opposition and civil society leader who challenged Alaksandar Łukašenka in the 2006 presidential election and was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament, died on Tuesday at the age of 79. 

In November 2025, the exiled politician underwent carotid artery stenting. He suffered brain swelling during the operation and spent three weeks in intensive care in critical condition.

In May 2026, Milinkievič’s wife Ina Kulej launched a public appeal for financial assistance, with €30,000 raised for her husband in three days. 

According to Kulej, complications that arose during the surgery damaged the left side of the brain, which controls movement, while the left side, responsible for intellect, speech and memory, was unaffected. 

As a result, Milinkievič lost the use of his left arm and had limited mobility in his legs. He repeatedly developed pneumonia and infections and required constant medical supervision and intensive rehabilitation.

In her Facebook appeal, Kulej said that the costs of treatment, rehabilitation, medication, and daily hospital visits had became unmanageable. “Like many of you, we cannot return to our homeland,” she wrote. “Following searches, our house in Bieršty has been sealed off, and a criminal case has been opened. We receive no retirement benefits from either Belarus or Poland and live solely on what we can earn ourselves. When we were healthy and both working, we had enough for a decent life. Now everything has changed.”

Born in Hrodna in 1947, Alaksandar Milinkievič graduated from the physics department of Hrodna State University and embarked on a distinguished two-decade career as a researcher and professor. After Belarus’ independence in the early 1990, he transitioned into public service, rising through the ranks to the position of deputy head of the Hrodna City Executive Committee. 

In 2001, Milinkievič acted as the campaign chief of opposition presidential candidate Siamion Domaš. In October 2005, Belarusian opposition organizations selected him as their single presidential candidate. The election, in which Milinkievič officially got only 6.12 percent of the vote, was followed by a week of demonstrations against ballot rigging, with a tent camp at the center of Minsk between March 19 and March 24, 2006. 

Following the dispersal of the protests and a 15-day jail term, Milinkievič announced the establishment of the Movement for Freedom to unite all supporters of democracy and a “European choice” for Belarus. In December 2006, the European Parliament presented him with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Until 2016, Milinkievič led the Movement for Freedom. Frustrated with a lack of unity among opposition forces, he stayed away from the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, despite being seen as a lead contender.

Together with Belarusian Nobel Prize-winning writer Śviatłana Aleksijevič, Milinkievič co-founded Free Belarusian University in Warsaw in 2017, becoming its chancellor. 

Amid the crackdown on Łukašenka’s opponents after the 2020 presidential election, Milinkievič and his wife moved to Poland. While in exile, Milinkievič promoted Free Belarusian University as a center of Belarusian learning abroad and provided assistance to Belarusian opposition forces as an advisor to Śviatlana Cichanoŭskaja. He described he as the clear winner of the 2020 election and the undisputed leader of all Belarusian pro-democracy forces.  

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Family seeks donations for former presidential candidate Milinkievič

May 26, Pozirk. Ina Kulej, wife of Alaksandar Milinkievič, a former opposition presidential candidate in the 2006 Belarusian presidential election, has launched a public appeal seeking financial assistance for her husband, who is in a serious health condition. The carotid …

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