Belarusian opposition leader calls for nationwide strike

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya remains exiled in Lithuania after the Belarusian government pressured her to leave following the disputed Aug. 9 election. On Tuesday, she set an Oct. 25 deadline for embattled President Alexander Lukashenko to announce his resignation or “the entire country will peacefully take to the streets.”

How did we get here? Tikhanovskaya’s supporters, along with the European Union and the United States, call the election that handed Lukashenko a sixth term a fraud. In the following days, up to 200,000 people attended some of the rallies demanding the leader of 26 years step down. The government has scaled back its violent crackdown on protesters but said it detained more than 700 demonstrators on Sunday. The European Union on Monday prepared sanctions against Lukashenko and other officials if they didn’t enter talks with the opposition party and stop suppressing protests.

Dig deeper: Read Jenny Lind Schmitt’s report on how Christians have responded to the unrest in Belarus.