Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saka.

My guest today found herself catapulted from obscurity to the centre of a political whirlwind

last year when she became the electoral rival of Belarus's veteran autocrat, Alexander Lukashenko.

Svietlana Tikonovskaya was an English language teacher and

mother of two when her husband, Sergei, a potential opposition presidential candidate, was imprisoned

by the Lukashenko regime. Svetlana decided that she would run in his stead, but never expected her candidacy to be allowed.

In the event, it was, while a host of other better-known opposition figures were barred.

And so it was last August she may well have won an unlikely victory,

until that is, a host of flagrant vote count violations which culminated in President

Lukashenko, claiming an overwhelming win. What followed was unprecedented tumult in Belarus.

Ms. Tikonovskaya was threatened with prison and forced to flee into exile in Lithuania to protect her children.

Street protests swept the country and were brutally repressed. That pattern has continued for the

past six months. Despite international condemnation, Lukashenko is still in power. So has the

revolutionary moment passed? Well, Svietlana Tikunovskaya joins me now from

Vilnius, Lithuania. Welcome to Hard Talk. Hello. Thank you. It's a pleasure to have you on the show.

There you sit in Vilnius, in exile.

Alexander Lukashenko is still president of your country, Belarus,

and it is now the six-month anniversary since you are convinced you won the presidential election.

So I'm just wondering how you feel today. Thank you. I feel responsibility, first of all,

responsibility for the people who believed in me, who believed me. And they know that only together

we can make our victory closer.

Looking back on those tumultuous events of August 2020,

...