Belarus frees dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski, 13 others after a uncommon go to from prime U.S. envoy

Belarus has freed Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident determine and the husband of exiled opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and 13 others following a uncommon go to by a senior U.S. official, Mr. Tsikhanouskaya’s group introduced on Saturday (June 21, 2025).

Mr. Tsikhanouski, a well-liked blogger and activist who was imprisoned in 2020, arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside 13 different political prisoners, his spouse’s group stated. The discharge got here simply hours after Belarusian authorities introduced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine in Minsk. Keith Kellogg turned the highest-ranking U.S. official in years to go to Belarus, Moscow’s shut and dependent ally.

A video revealed on Mr. Tsikhanouskaya’s official Telegram account confirmed Mr. Tsikhanouski disembarking from a white minibus, smiling broadly regardless of his shaved head and emaciated body. He pulled his spouse into a protracted embrace as their supporters applauded.

“My husband is free. It is tough to explain the enjoyment in my coronary heart,” Ms. Tsikhanouskaya advised reporters. However she added her group’s work is “not completed” whereas over 1,100 political prisoners stay behind bars in Belarus.

Mr. Tsikhanouski, identified for his anti-Lukashenko slogan “cease the cockroach,” was jailed after asserting plans to problem the strongman within the 2020 election. Following his arrest, his spouse ran in his stead, rallying giant crowds throughout the nation. Official outcomes of the election handed Mr. Lukashenko his sixth time period in workplace however had been denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham.

A crackdown snuffed out protests after 2020 election

Tens of 1000’s of individuals poured into the streets within the aftermath of the August 2020 vote, within the largest protests within the nation’s historical past. Within the ensuing crackdown, greater than 35,000 individuals had been detained, with many overwhelmed by police. Distinguished opposition figures both fled the nation or had been imprisoned. Mr. Tsikhanouski was sentenced to 19 1/2 years in jail on expenses of organising mass riots.

Mr. Lukashenko has since prolonged his rule for a seventh time period following a January 2025 election that the opposition known as a farce. Since July 2024, he has pardoned practically 300 individuals, together with imprisoned U.S. residents, in search of to fix ties with the West.

On the assembly in Minsk, Mr. Lukashenko hugged and warmly welcomed Mr. Kellogg and the American delegation to his residence.

“I actually hope that our dialog shall be very honest and open. In any other case, what’s the level of assembly? If we’re intelligent and crafty in entrance of one another, we is not going to obtain outcomes,” Mr. Lukashenko stated. “You have got made loads of noise on the earth together with your arrival.”

Mr. Lukashenko’s press secretary, Natalya Eismont, advised Russian state media hours later that he freed the 14 prisoners following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump.

It was not instantly clear whether or not Mr. Kellogg’s go to may pave the way in which for the lifting of some US sanctions towards Minsk, imposed over the brutal crackdown towards the 2020 protests and Mr. Lukashenko’s assist of Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.

“Lukashenko is clearly attempting to get out of worldwide isolation, and the discharge of such a big group of political prisoners alerts a want to begin a dialogue with the U.S. with a view to soften worldwide sanctions,” Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich advised The Related Press.

“After 5 years, Lukashenko is attempting to loosen the knot with which the Kremlin tied him, utilizing him for the struggle towards Ukraine,” Mr. Karbalevich stated.

Belarus has allowed the Kremlin to make use of its territory to ship troops and weapons into Ukraine, and likewise to station its forces and nuclear weapons there.

Others stay behind bars

Many different distinguished dissidents nonetheless languish in Belarusian jails, amongst them Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate serving a 10-year jail sentence on expenses broadly denounced as politically motivated.

Mr. Bialiatski, founding father of Viasna, Belarus’ oldest and most distinguished rights group, was arrested in 2021 throughout raids by the nation’s fundamental safety company that also goes by its Soviet-era title, the KGB.

In March 2023, he was convicted on expenses of smuggling and financing actions that “grossly violated public order,” and sentenced to 10 years. Authorities labelled him particularly harmful due to alleged “extremist” tendencies.

He, his household and supporters say the fees towards him are politically motivated, and a U.N. panel of human rights specialists known as on Belarus to launch him. In 2022, when Mr. Bialiatski was behind bars, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with the distinguished Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Heart for Civil Liberties.

Mr. Bialiatski has been serving his sentence at a penal colony for repeat offenders within the metropolis of Gorki. The ability is infamous for beatings and onerous labour. Mr. Bialiatski’s spouse warned final yr about his deteriorating well being, saying the 62-year-old battles a number of persistent diseases.

Additionally behind bars is Viktor Babaryka, a former banker who was broadly seen in 2020 as Mr. Lukashenko’s fundamental electoral rival, and Maria Kolesnikova, an in depth ally of Mr. Tsikhanouskaya and charismatic chief of that yr’s mass protests. Together with her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming her fingers into the form of a coronary heart, Mr. Kolesnikova turned a fair higher image of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her. She responded by tearing up her passport on the border and strolling again into Belarus.

A journalist walks free, however many extra languish

Launched alongside Mr. Tsikhanouski was longtime Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty correspondent Ihar Karnei, the U.S. government-funded broadcaster confirmed. Mr. Karnei, who had additionally labored with distinguished Belarusian and Russian newspapers, had been serving a three-year service on extremism expenses he rejected as a sham.

“The discharge was a giant shock for me,” Mr. Karnei advised AP in a cellphone interview Saturday. “I did not consider it till the very finish, however now I perceive that different political prisoners deserve the identical.”

He stated that he spent about six months in solitary confinement.

“Most individuals endure merely for his or her beliefs and don’t deserve these horrible circumstances and phrases,” Mr. Karnei stated.

RFE/RL’s Belarusian service had been designated extremist within the nation, a standard label handed to anybody who criticizes Lukashenko’s authorities. Because of this, working for it or spreading its content material has change into a prison offense.

“We’re deeply grateful to President Trump for securing the discharge of this courageous journalist, who suffered by the hands of the Belarusian authorities,” the broadcaster’s CEO Stephen Capus stated Saturday in a press launch.

Mr. Karnei was detained a number of occasions whereas protecting the 2020 protests. Not like a lot of his colleagues, he selected to remain in Belarus regardless of the following repression. He was arrested once more in July 2023, as police raided his residence seizing telephones and computer systems.

The group Reporters With out Borders says Belarus is Europe’s main jailer of journalists. Not less than 40 are serving lengthy jail sentences, in response to the impartial Belarusian Affiliation of Journalists. Many face beatings, poor medical care and the lack to contact attorneys or family, in response to activists and former inmates.

Belarus additionally freed an Estonian nationwide who had arrange an NGO to boost funds for Belarusian refugees. In response to the Estonian International Ministry, Allan Roio was detained final January, and sentenced to six 1/2 years in jail on expenses of building an extremist organisation.