Former Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov was removed from a train travelling from Minsk to Vilnius at a station near the Lithuanian border yesterday. The activist, who was released from detention and pardoned by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in April, was reportedly heading to a conference in the Lithuanian capital. On 2 June fellow activist Dmitri Bandarenka was also removed from a train travelling from Vilnius to Minsk. His personal belongings were searched and he was made to strip down to socks. Bandarenka was travelling from Lithuania, where he had received medical treatment, and arrived in Minsk on the next train.