Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today, in this interview recorded on Tuesday the 13th of August, is a turncoat

in the sense that he's now a vocal opponent of the ruler he once served.

That surely gives Belarusian pro-democracy activist Pavel Latushka a very clear appreciation of the

difficulty of dislodging President Alexander Lukashenko from power in Minsk.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus in increasingly repressive fashion for three decades.

Latushka was a trusted ambassador in Poland, France and Spain. He served briefly as

Minister of Culture. But his relationship with the regime soured after he took over the running of

Belarus's best-known theatre. He openly backed the opposition in the run-up to the 2020

presidential election before Lukashenko fixed the official result.

After that, Mr. Latushka was charged with treason and fled to Poland.

Now he's a major player in the anti-Lukashenko government in exile,

led by the woman who claims she rightfully won that 2020 election,

Svetlana Tsikanovskaya.

But the last four years haven't been easy for Lukashenko's opponents.

His alliance with Vladimir Putin in Moscow is stronger than ever, and the long-running Ukraine war has diverted Western attention away from Belarus.

And that war raises complex questions for the

Belarus opposition. As Lukashenko's fate appears tied to Putin's, is theirs now tied to Kiev.

What impact will the latest extraordinary twist Ukraine's offensive inside Russia have on the

struggle for regime change inside Belarus.

Well, Pavel Latushka joins me now.

On the line from Warsaw.

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