Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's office in Vilnius, recognized in Belarus as involved in terrorist activities, has stopped its work. This was announced by the adviser of the fugitive oppositionist Denis Kuchinsky.
The reason for the work stoppage was the lowering of the protection status by the Lithuanian authorities.
Kuczynski said that the office received the relevant notification on October 1 and suspended its activities until it adapts to the change of protection."We wanted to know about this in advance, but this did not happen. Too short a period of time does not allow us to adapt to the change, so we are temporarily suspending our activities," he said.
Recall, Tikhanovskaya fled Belarus in August 2020 to Lithuania, where she was given the status of an official guest of category C, which is granted to ambassadors of foreign countries, heads of missions of international organizations registered in Lithuania, members of the European Commission. Her protection cost the Lithuanian authorities about one million euros a year. This amount includes round-the-clock physical security of the opposition representative in Lithuania and abroad, as well as cars, residence maintenance and VIP terminals at airports. On October 7, it became known that Vilnius decided to lower the level of protection of Tikhanovskaya from the Security Service of the leadership to the Criminal Police Bureau, which usually provides protection for witnesses and victims.