Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the UK Government is taking steps to support (a) Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and (b) the opposition movement in Belarus.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya last visited the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on 9 March 2022, where she met the Rt. Hon. James Cleverly, then Minister for Europe. Although there are currently no firm plans in place for a future visit, the UK remains in regular contact with Mrs Tsikanouskaya and other prominent Belarusian civil society figures.

The UK Government continues to urge the Belarusian authorities to end their repression of their own citizens, enter into an inclusive dialogue with the democratic opposition and civil society, and offer the Belarusian people the genuine choice of government that they both want and deserve.