Milinkievič funeral in Warsaw

August 22, Pozirk. Belarus’ opposition politician Alaksandar Milinkevič lies in state at St. John’s Archcathedral in the Old Town before his funeral at Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery.

The funeral is attended by Belarus’ leading opposition figures.

Milinkievič died on August 11 aged 79.

Born in Hrodna in 1947, Alaksandar Milinkievič graduated from the physics department of Hrodna State University and embarked on a distinguished two-decade career as a researcher and professor. After Belarus’ independence in the early 1990, he transitioned into public service, rising through the ranks to the position of deputy head of the Hrodna City Executive Committee. 

In 2001, Milinkievič acted as the campaign chief of opposition presidential candidate Siamion Domaš. In October 2005, Belarusian opposition organizations selected him as their single presidential candidate. The election, in which Milinkievič officially got only 6.12 percent of the vote, was followed by a week of demonstrations against ballot rigging, with a tent camp at the center of Minsk between March 19 and March 24, 2006. 

Following the dispersal of the protests and a 15-day jail term, Milinkievič announced the establishment of the Movement for Freedom to unite all supporters of democracy and a “European choice” for Belarus. In December 2006, the European Parliament presented him with the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Until 2016, Milinkievič led the Movement for Freedom. Frustrated with a lack of unity among opposition forces, he stayed away from the 2010 and 2015 presidential elections, despite being seen as a lead contender.

Together with Belarusian Nobel Prize-winning writer Śviatłana Aleksijevič, Milinkievič co-founded Free Belarusian University in Warsaw in 2017, becoming its chancellor. 

Amid the crackdown on Łukašenka’s opponents after the 2020 presidential election, Milinkievič and his wife moved to Poland. While in exile, Milinkievič promoted Free Belarusian University as a center of Belarusian learning abroad and provided assistance to Belarusian opposition forces as an advisor to Śviatlana Cichanoŭskaja. He described her as the clear winner of the 2020 election and the undisputed leader of all Belarusian pro-democracy forces.