WESTERN-BACKED opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya  demanded more international sanctions against the Belarusian government yesterday, calling on world leaders to increase efforts to topple President Alexander Lukashenko.

Sanctions were placed on 43 officials by the US on Thursday, just hours after the jailing of two journalists who worked for Polish government-funded news organisation Belsat, which is committed to overthrowing the Belarusian government. 

But speaking to the Sunday Times in front of a red-and-white Belarusian flag, which was used in the pre-war era and later adopted by the Nazis, Ms Tikhanovskaya mocked the European Union’s three sanctions packages as “derisory.”

“Only 90 people are under sanctions. It’s a mockery, the Lukashenko regime is laughing,” she said.

Ms Tikhanovskaya continues to dispute elections in which she polled just 10 per cent of the vote compared with Mr Lukashenko, who took 80 per cent.

But the EU, US and other countries are seeking regime change in Belarus in order to access its raw materials and get their hands on the country’s nationalised industries. 

Washington has pumped millions into opposition parties, NGOs, so-called free trade unions and media organisations in order to destabilise Belarus and lay the ground for the ousting of Mr Lukashenko.