Sviatlana Hieorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya is a Belarusian opposition leader and political activist. Since running in the 2020 presidential election against President Alexander Lukashenko, she has led dissidence to his authoritarian rule through an alternate government operating from Lithuania and Poland.
Tsikhanouskaya became an opposition leader after her husband, Syarhei Tsikhanouski, sought to run in the 2020 presidential election. He was arrested, along with most other opposition leaders and – since she could not file for the presidency on his behalf – Tsikhanouskaya entered herself as a candidate. Lukashenko allowed her candidacy because he believed a woman could not create a legitimate opposition. She ran on a platform of constitutional reform, seeking free and fair elections with term limits on the presidency, and she pledged to step down once this was implemented. After Lukashenko was declared the victor, she was held by Belarusian authorities and then forced into exile in Lithuania.