Opposition Belarusian politician Alyaksandr Milinkevich, who ran for president in 2006, has died following an illness aged 79, according to a social media post by his stepson.
Milinkevich was a longstanding critic of his country’s authoritarian regime, led by Aleksandr Lukashenko since 1994, winning the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize following his failed presidential bid.
He died in Warsaw, having left Belarus in 2021 -- like many opposition activists. There was no official information about a formal criminal case against him, though security forces searched and sealed his country house in 2023.
Tributes to Milinkevich were led by exiled opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who described him as “a man of exceptional dignity, a kind soul, and a brilliant mind” who was a source of valued advice.
Milinkevich’s passing on August 11 was announced in a simple message by his stepson, Belarusian journalist Ihar Kulei, who simply wrote: “Alyaksandr Milinkevich passed away today at 7:15 a.m.”
Born in Hrodna in 1947, he was a physicist and academic before serving as deputy mayor of his hometown between 1990 and 1996.
In 1996, he founded a civic organization, Town Hall, to oppose Lukashenko’s policies, and supported an opposition presidential candidate in 2001 before his own run in 2006. That campaign and his subsequent role in street protests brought him a 15-day prison term.
International observers, Western governments, and human rights groups have consistently said that elections in Belarus are not free or fair.
“Our goal is a free Belarus, a democratic Belarus whose main strategic goal is integration into Europe,” he told RFE/RL in an interview the following year. “In our country, we cannot change the government through elections. How can we change it? Through street action, through acts of civil disobedience.”
Milinkevich continued his opposition activities but said he would not run in the 2010 presidential election because the result would be a foregone conclusion. He was then not allowed to stand in parliamentary elections in 2012.
In 2020, he supported Tsikhanouskaya and joined her team as an external adviser. Her attempt to challenge Lukashenko in elections that year was unsuccessful, with results again widely believed to be rigged.
This was followed by a wave of mass nationwide street protests that were brutally suppressed with beatings and arrests -- and a subsequent exodus of Belarusians into exile.
