Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the woman who ran against President Alexander Lukashenko in the Belarus election, has released a video saying that she is willing to take on the role of the “national leader” to oversee a transition from the increasingly unpopular leader and hold a new election.

She urged law enforcement officers to side with the protests and assured them that Belarusians would be ready to forgive the extraordinarily savage crackdown that riot police meted out on protesters last week.

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