VILNIUS, August 13. /TASS/. Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who left for Lithuania on Tuesday needs some time to make a decision on her further activities which she will then announce herself, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said in an interview with the Ziniu radijas radio station on Thursday.
"Let’s give her the time she needs after the experienced stress to make a decision which she’ll tell about herself," he noted.
According to the diplomat, the need for a pause for Tikhanovskaya is caused by the fact that she found herself in difficult circumstances. "Tikhanovskaya is not a politician as she stated herself, a huge burden fell on her shoulders that she, possibly, wasn’t ready for," he said. The minister called Tikhanovskaya a "symbol of the elections" and thinks that her activity "gave an impulse to the realization that a civic society should be formed in Belarus."
According to the top diplomat, currently Tikhanovskaya is undergoing a 14-day self-isolation compulsory for those entering Lithuania from Belarus. "She is in self-isolation according to the rules. There are no exceptions," he said.
Belarus held the presidential election on August 9. Preliminary results show incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko securing his reelection with 80.08% of the vote, while his main rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received 10.09%. Tikhanovskaya challenged the results, refusing to recognize them. She also filed a complaint with the national election commission. Tikhanovskaya then left the country and has been in Lithuania since Tuesday.