In August 2025, Telegram channels reported: a Belarusian oppositionist released from prison said in a fresh interview that he spent €1,000 donated by his subscribers on personal needs. We checked whether the politician said this.
Publications about the former political prisoner’s alleged confession of misappropriation of donations appeared on Telegram in early August. For example, the channel "Truthfulness”(155,000 views at the time of writing this analysis) reported: “I collected €200,000 to attack Lukashenko, but collected a thousand. <…> Tikhanovsky openly stated that he spent the money collected for his “brilliant” plans on himself.” The post contains the following dialogue:
-What did you do with them?
- With a thousand? I bought myself a watch and headphones!
Telegram channel Colonelcassad (191,000 views), in turn, shared the following text, framed as a quote from Tikhanovsky: “The strike on Lukashenko is canceled, postponed, soon I will begin to tell my clear plans. Of the €200,000, only a thousand was raised, and I used it to buy myself headphones and a watch.”
All similar posts contain videos with excerpts from Tikhanovsky’s interview of varying lengths: for example, 11 or 24 sec., 1.5 or 2 min. At the end of such recordings, fragments of a video are added in which Tikhanovsky is captured with a watch and headphones during training.
According to the TGStat service, similar posts on Telegram received several million views, and the most popular publications appeared in the channels “Russia 360°"(251,000 views), "Newsach / Dvach"(221,000), "Evil proof️"(209,000), "Uncle Slava"(178,000), "#Montan!"(144,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(111,000), "Sasha Kon"(103,000), Rus_criminal (96,000), "Operation Z"(83,000), "Peter the First" (twice: 81,000 And 82,000) And "Bloodseeker 2.0"(81,000). The news about Tikhanovsky’s alleged confession appears on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), TikTok And X, the publications also wrote about thisAnother Ukraine" And Avia.pro.
In 2019, Sergei Tikhanovsky created the YouTube channel “Country to live”, which talked about problems in Belarus and quickly became popular. The blogger gained even wider fame when decided run for president of the country in the 2020 elections, but the Central Election Commission refused him in the registration. Then his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya replaced her husband filed your documents for registration as candidates and ultimately became leader of the Belarusian opposition. Tikhanovsky himself in 2021 was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots, inciting social hatred, etc. On June 21, 2025, he was released and was expelled to Lithuania after a meeting between US Presidential Special Representative Keith Kellogg and Alexander Lukashenko.
July 1 in “A Country for Life” was released video clip, in which Tikhanovsky announced the recruitment of associates to his team. In the address, the oppositionist also claimed that he plans to deal “a powerful blow to Lukashism and its propaganda” in about three weeks. “The first strike alone requires resources - more than €200,000. And these are small funds to achieve such large-scale goals,” Tikhanovsky noted. A few days later he recorded a new video, in which he criticized subscribers: “I turned to you for help, and you donated €1000 to me and are expecting a powerful blow to Lukashism in three weeks. It's embarrassing and painful. Someone has to come and do everything for you. Wait, wait further, and I will fight. Long live Belarus!”
Tikhanovsky gave an interview, excerpts from which were distributed on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, live on August 7 on air Polish Belarusian-language TV channel Belsat. There is also a recording of the conversation on the Belsat News YouTube channel published separately.
During the conversation, the presenters asked Tikhanovsky to once again comment on the above-mentioned collection of money and the announced action. “I came out with a proposal to make such a first powerful blow, but, unfortunately, I did not see support in this matter. That is, the Belarusians said that “we are already overextended, we have already been deceived many times and we need clear and specific plans.” Therefore, this question, this blow - it was postponed, it was cancelled, yes. Well, how can I apply it without any means, right? Well, absolutely not,” stated Tikhanovsky. He promised later announced specific plans, but did not name them on air.
Then took place dialogue, a recording of which was published by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels, but, as it turned out, in their version, Tikhanovsky’s quote was cut off:
— You asked to raise €200,000, how much has been collected to date?
— At that time we had collected €1000 in total. At that moment.
- And for today?
“And now we are not collecting anything else according to this plan.”
- What will happen to this money already collected?
— I bought myself a watch and headphones. Just kidding, of course. Kidding.
The fact that Tikhanovsky was joking is also indicated by indirect evidence. Record his workout on the shore, which was used to demonstrate the watches and headphones he allegedly bought with donations, was released on the YouTube channel “Country for Life” on July 20, almost three weeks after the opening of the money collection. However, the same watch can be seen on the oppositionist’s hand in the address dated July 1 - the same one where he asked subscribers to donate money. It turns out that this gadget was purchased before the fundraiser for €200,000 opened.
Thus, although “Verified” cannot reliably confirm that Tikhanovsky did not buy headphones and a second watch with donated money, his words from the viral fragment of the interview were taken out of context. The Belarusian oppositionist immediately called his admission of spending money on personal needs a joke, but this point was cut off in the version that was distributed across Telegram channels.
Cover photo: screenshot of video @stranazhizni (YouTube)
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