Belarusian united opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanouskaya attends a news conference following the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 10, 2020. — Reuters pic
"You know, I thought that this whole campaign really had hardened me and given me so much strength that I could handle anything," she said, explaining her decision in a sombre video released on her husband's YouTube channel. "And I know that many people will understand me, many will judge me and many will hate me. But, you know, God forbid being faced with such a choice the I was faced with," she said.
Helmeted police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades and used batons to disperse thousands of people in Minsk in a second night of violence. Protesters set up barricades in several areas and threw petrol bombs.In power for more than a quarter of a century, Lukashenko has compared the protesters to criminal gangs and dangerous revolutionaries with shadowy foreign backers.