The Coordination Council (; ), originally the Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power, is the representative body of the Belarusian democratic forces. It was formed in Minsk in August 2020, during the protests that followed the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election, on the initiative of presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who had been forced to leave Belarus for Lithuania on 11 August. Tsikhanouskaya herself has never been a member of the Council; its initial membership was assembled in Minsk by her representative Volha Kavalkova and lawyer Maxim Znak, and the Council was led by a seven-member presidium elected on 19 August 2020. Within a month, six of the seven presidium members had been detained, forced into exile or expelled from the country, and the Council's executive secretary and press secretary were forcibly taken across the Ukrainian border.
In 2022–2023 the Council was reorganised into a larger body of delegates from civil-society organisations, with a speaker elected in March 2023. Since 2024 it has been elected directly by Belarusian citizens by online vote for a two-year term: 6,723 voters took part in the May 2024 election and 2,113 in the May 2026 election, in which the coalition of Pavel Latushko and the Movement "For Freedom" won 34 of the 80 seats. The Council's speaker since May 2025 is Artsiom Brukhan.
On 20 August 2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the Belarusian government to engage with Belarusian society "including through the newly established Coordination Council", and in December 2020 the United States Congress passed the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020, which made it US policy to recognise the Council as a legitimate institution for a dialogue on a peaceful transfer of power. The European Parliament welcomed the Council in September 2020 as "the interim representation of the people demanding democratic change in Belarus", and the Lithuanian Seimas described it as the legitimate representative of the Belarusian people. In January 2025 the Senate of Poland declared that it treats the Council as the Belarusian parliament in exile, and a delegation of the Council took part for the first time in a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The Belarusian authorities opened a criminal case against the Council's founders in August 2020 and designated it an "extremist formation" in January 2023.
Creation
The creation of the Coordination Council was announced on 14 August 2020 in a video address by Tsikhanouskaya, who had left Belarus for Lithuania three days earlier. In the address she said that she had won the 9 August election, called on the international community to help organise a dialogue with the Belarusian authorities, and stated that applications from those wishing to join the Council would be collected by her representative Volha Kavalkova and lawyer Maksim Znak. A first list of 35 members was published on 17 August and expanded to 51 the next day.
On 18 August the Council held its first meeting and press conference in Minsk, at which Kavalkova, Znak, Maria Kalesnikava, Pavel Latushko and Sergei Dylevsky presented its aims: new elections and a peaceful transfer of power. Kavalkova described the Council as "the single representative body of Belarusian society" and said that it did not seek to take power unconstitutionally. On 19 August the Council elected a seven-member presidium and adopted a resolution with three demands: an end to violence and political persecution, the release of political prisoners, and the annulment of the 9 August election with a new vote under international standards. Tsikhanouskaya did not become a member of the Council. On the same day Lukashenko called the Council's members "outright Nazis", and former presidential contender Valery Tsepkalo complained that he had not been invited. On 20 August Prosecutor-General Alexander Konyuk opened criminal proceedings under Article 361 of the Criminal Code, alleging that the Council aimed at "seizure of state power"; presidium members Dylevsky and Znak were summoned for questioning the following day.
On 21 August, Tsikhanouskaya's lawyer Znak filed a formal protest concerning the presidential election with the Supreme Court of Belarus. Znak said that "A complaint has been submitted. A decision on when to start proceedings is due within three days." On 24 August, presidium members Dylevsky and Kovalkova were detained by OMON officers whilst attempting to support a wildcat strike at the Minsk Tractor Works factory. Presidium members Vlasova, Latushko, Alexievich, and Kolesnikova were also summoned for questioning. Both Kovalkova and Dylevsky were sentenced to 10 days' imprisonment the following day.
On 26 August, Ivonka Survilla, President of the Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic, expressed her support for Tsikhanouskaya. On 31 August, presidium member Vlasova was detained by the OMON. On 5 September, presidium member Kovalkova chose to leave Belarus rather than remain in detention over the Section 361 charges. On 7 September, presidium member Kolesnikova was detained by unidentified masked men in Minsk.
On 9 September 2020, the only member of the presidium not yet arrested or missing was Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich. However, there were reports from Belarusian journalists that unknown men were knocking at the doors of her home. As of 9 August 2020, she was under round-the-clock guard by diplomats for several European countries, including ambassadors from Poland and Lithuania.
In September 2020, Lithuania, became the only sovereign state to recognize the Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power as the only legitimate representatives of the Belarusian people.
At a press conference in Poland, council member Pavel Latushko condemned the situation in Belarus, claiming that 10,000 people were subject to misconduct and imprisonment orchestrated by the security forces. He stated that 450 people were tortured, and protesters were put into jail on fake charges. Latushko and Olga Kovalkova invited the OSCE and United Nations to send observers to Belarus to assess the situation.
Convocations First Convocation (2020–2022)
Initially, the Council included about 70 members.
The Council elected a 7-member presidium on 19 August 2020. The members of the presidium were:
Sviatlana Alexievich (Nobel Laureate in Literature) Sergei Dylevsky, leader of Minsk Tractor Works (MTZ) strike committee) Maria Kalesnikava, head of Viktar Babaryka's campaign Olga Kovalkova, Belarusian Christian Democracy party co-chair and representative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Pavel Latushko, former Minister of Culture; Latushko announced that he had quit the council in late February 2023. Liliya Vlasova (mediator and lawyer) Maxim Znak, lawyer, member of Viktar Babaryka's headquarters
Three people were added to the presidium later: Andrei Bastunets, journalist, chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Ales Bialiatski, human rights defender, chair of the Viasna Human Rights Centre Maksim Bogretsov, Vice President of EPAM Systems
The Council's day-to-day work was run by a secretariat headed by executive secretary Ivan Kravtsov, a coordinator of Viktar Babaryka's election campaign; Anton Radniankou served as press secretary. On the night of 7–8 September 2020 Kravtsov and Radniankou, together with presidium member Maria Kalesnikava, were taken by security officers to the Belarusian–Ukrainian border. The two men crossed into Ukraine, where they gave a press conference in Kyiv; Kalesnikava tore up her passport, refused to leave the country and was detained.
On 10 October 2020 Lukashenko met eleven detainees in the KGB pre-trial detention centre in Minsk, among them Babaryka and presidium members Liliya Vlasova and Maxim Znak; the participants agreed not to disclose the content of the meeting, and Council members Pavel Latushko and Maksim Bahratsou urged Belarusians not to trust Lukashenko or abandon the Council's demands. Vlasova was released to house arrest several days later. On 6 September 2021 a court in Minsk sentenced Kalesnikava to 11 years and Znak to 10 years in prison in a closed trial on charges of conspiracy to seize power, creating an extremist organisation and calls for actions damaging national security.
Presidium members: detentions and exile Name Detention in 2020 Left Belarus Status (September 2026) Alexievich — 28 September 2020 In exile (Germany) Dyleuski 24 August – 17 September 2020 October 2020 In exile (Poland); sentenced in absentia to 12 years on 6 March 2023 Kalesnikava 7 September 2020 13 December 2025 (expelled) In exile (Germany); Sentenced to 11 years on 6 September 2021; released on 13 December 2025 and taken to Ukraine Kavalkova 24 August – 5 September 2020 5 September 2020 (expelled to Poland) In exile (Poland); sentenced in absentia to 12 years on 6 March 2023 Latushko — 2 September 2020 In exile (Poland); sentenced in absentia to 18 years on 6 March 2023 Vlasova 31 August – 24 October 2020 — Released to house arrest in October 2020 Znak 9 September 2020 13 December 2025 (expelled) In exile (Poland);Sentenced to 10 years on 6 September 2021; released on 13 December 2025 and taken to Ukraine
Second convocation (2022–2024)
On 9 August 2022, at the "New Belarus" conference in Vilnius at which the United Transitional Cabinet was announced, the Council adopted a decision to reorganise itself within the new configuration of the democratic forces, with the tasks of drafting programme and strategy documents, organising public debate, international cooperation and preparing concepts for the country's development. By February 2023 the reformed Council consisted of 22 members of the previous composition, 73 delegates from civil-society organisations and 15 self-nominated members. At its first session on 16 February 2023 the Council debated draft rules of procedure, including a proposal to give it the right to pass a vote of no confidence in the Cabinet, which the Cabinet's representative Valery Kavaleuski opposed. On 25 February 2023 Pavel Latushko announced that he was leaving the Council, objecting to discussion within it of a possible dialogue with the Lukashenko government and of easing sanctions.
On 13 March 2023 the Council elected political scientist as its first speaker, in the third round of voting, and Alena Zhyvahlod, leader of the Honest People initiative, as vice-speaker, both for a one-year term. The second convocation held hearings on the Cabinet's representatives: in August 2023 it heard their reports before the "New Belarus" conference and recommended extending their mandates, and on 6 August 2023 it declined to approve Aliaksandr Azarau as Representative for the Restoration of Law and Order (11 votes in favour, 35 against, 30 abstentions), after which Tsikhanouskaya removed him from the post. In January 2023 the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs designated the Council an "extremist formation", and in November 2023 more than 130 searches were carried out in Belarus at the homes of Council members and their relatives.
Third Convocation: First Coordination Council Election (2024–2026)
In May 2024, a direct election was held for 80 seats on the Council. On 28 May 2024, the preliminary results of the elections to the Coordination Council's third composition were announced. The elections were held electronically from 25 to 27 May, verified through Belarusian passports. Altogether 6,723 voters participated in the election.
There were about 280 candidates, grouped in twelve electoral lists. The electoral lists had very similar goals to one another – restoring democracy and the rule of law in Belarus and preserving Belarusian independence, but differed regarding the relative priorities for "political, military, legal, international law, [or] economic means" of achieving the goals.