Former English teacher and nominal victor in Belarus’ presidential election Svetlana Tikhanovskaya gave her first press conference in Lithuania and called for peaceful demonstrations to continue.

"Workers of Belaruskali, the Minsk Tractor Plant, Grodno Azot and other enterprises! The future of Belarus, which also means the future of our children, depends now on your unity and your determination. So I am asking you to continue and to expand the strikes. Don’t get intimidated. Get united," she said as cited by Tass.

She called the strikes a legal and effective method of fighting. She added that "millions have already been donated to the support foundations."

She said she is hoping for dialogue between the Belarusian people and the government and for a new election, adding that she will return to Belarus when it is safe for her to do so.

"I love Belarus and I will come back when I feel safe there," she said, answering a corresponding question.

On Tuesday, Olga Kovalkova, Tikhanovskaya’s authorised representative, said that the former candidate would return to Belarus in the near future, as "nothing presents a threat to her" there at the moment.

"I support all protesters, all peaceful ways of defending one’s rights, including the right to an election and the right to freedom of speech. I hope and I believe that the government will hear its own people. We have always been told that the president loves his country and his people, and he sees clearly now that people want change," Tikhanovskaya added.

Peskov: Belarus must solve its own problems

Tikhanovskaya was asked during her press conference if she had been contacted by Russia and said “no attempts to contact me have been made.”

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Belarus must solve its own problems and reiterated the Kremlin’s position that other countries must not interfere in the showdown between the people and the president in an interview with Kommersant FM, cited by Meduza.io.

“Belarus is our Union State and a brotherly country to us. And the Belarusian people are a brotherly people to us. We treat everything that happens in Belarus as the internal affairs of that country. We believe that everyone should do everything required to create conditions for managing the situation within a legal framework, in which the necessary dialogue could take place. And, of course, we believe that in the current situation, the main thing is that there’s no outside interference in what is happening in Belarus now. We regret that attempts at this kind of direct intervention are taking place. We ourselves consider this kind of interference unacceptable,” Peskov said.

Peskov would not be drawn on the question of if the elections were valid or if new elections should be held. He pointed to the presence of “international monitors”, who were largely represented by a group of Russian parliamentarians, and stressed all the legal formalities had been met but stopped short of commenting on the validity of the elections.

“We’ll repeat it one more time: we are in favour of the situation staying within a legal framework; the Belarusians must solve their problems themselves, within this legal framework and within the framework of a dialogue,” said Peskov.

The Kremlin has been blowing hot and cold on the situation in Belarus and the consensus view is that while the Kremlin would prefer a weakened Lukashenko to survive, it will not go out of its way to save him either.