Reader’s Digest: Tsikhanouskaya is European of the Year
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus’s Opposition Leader, was honored for standing up to the dictatorship in her home country. Each year Reader’s Digest editors in Europe nominate a shortlist of Europeans who have had a major influence on a pressing contemporary issue and are helping to make the world a better place. First launched in 1996 , the European of the Year for 2022 is 39-year-old Belarus Opposition Leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya . She has been presented with the award trophy at her headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania, the country where she has been living in exile since running against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in contested elections that took place in August 2020. The award recognizes Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s bravery in standing up to Lukashenko, the dictator who had jailed her husband, pro-democracy activist and opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky, just before th...