Belarus frees key opposition figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski following rare visit from top US envoy

TALLINN, Estonia — Belarus has freed Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya , following a visit there by a senior Trump administration official, Tsikhanouskaya's team announced on Saturday.
It said Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger and activist, had arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside 13 other political prisoners. Tsikhanouski's release came just hours after the Belarusian authorities announced that the country's authoritarian President, Alexander Lukashenko, met with Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg in Minsk.

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Boston Globe

35 minutes ago

• Boston Globe

Belarus frees dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski and 13 others after a rare visit from top US envoy

Advertisement 'My husband is free. It's difficult to describe the joy in my heart,' Tsikhanouskaya told reporters. But she added her team's work is 'not finished' while over 1,100 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus. Tsikhanouski, known for his anti-Lukashenko slogan 'stop the cockroach,' was jailed after announcing plans to challenge the strongman in the 2020 election. Following his arrest, his wife ran in his stead, rallying large crowds across the country. Official results of the election handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham. Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in the aftermath of the August 2020 vote, in the largest protests in the country's history. In the ensuing crackdown, more than 35,000 people were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures either fled the country or were imprisoned. Tsikhanouski was sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots. Advertisement Lukashenko has since extended his rule for a seventh term following a January 2025 election that the opposition called a farce. Since July 2024, he has pardoned nearly 300 people, including imprisoned U.S. citizens, seeking to mend ties with the West. At the meeting in Minsk, Lukashenko hugged and warmly welcomed Kellogg and the American delegation to his residence. 'I really hope that our conversation will be very sincere and open. Otherwise, what is the point of meeting? If we are clever and cunning in front of each other, we will not achieve results,' Lukashenko said. 'You have made a lot of noise in the world with your arrival.' Lukashenko's press secretary, Natalya Eismont, told Russian state media hours later that he freed the 14 prisoners following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump. It was not immediately clear whether Kellogg's visit might pave the way for the lifting of some U.S. sanctions against Minsk, imposed over the brutal crackdown against the 2020 protests and Lukashenko's support of Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine. 'Lukashenko is clearly trying to get out of international isolation, and the release of such a large group of political prisoners signals a desire to start a dialogue with the U.S. in order to soften international sanctions,' Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich told The Associated Press. 'After five years, Lukashenko is trying to loosen the knot with which the Kremlin tied him, using him for the war against Ukraine,' Karbalevich said. Advertisement Belarus has allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to send troops and weapons into Ukraine, and also to station its forces and nuclear weapons there. Many other prominent dissidents still languish in Belarusian jails, among them Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges widely denounced as politically motivated. Bialiatski, founder of Viasna, Belarus' oldest and most prominent rights group, was arrested in 2021 during raids by the country's main security agency that still goes by its Soviet-era name, the KGB. In March 2023, he was convicted on charges of smuggling and financing actions that 'grossly violated public order,' and sentenced to 10 years. Authorities labeled him especially dangerous because of alleged 'extremist' tendencies. He, his family and supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated, and a U.N. panel of human rights experts called on Belarus to release him. In 2022, when Bialiatski was behind bars, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the prominent Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties. Bialiatski has been serving his sentence at a penal colony for repeat offenders in the city of Gorki. The facility is notorious for beatings and hard labor. Bialiatski's wife warned last year about his deteriorating health, saying the 62-year-old battles multiple chronic illnesses. Also behind bars is Viktor Babaryka, a former banker who was widely seen in 2020 as Lukashenko's main electoral rival, and Maria Kolesnikova, a close ally of Tsikhanouskaya and charismatic leader of that year's mass protests. With her close-cropped hair and trademark gesture of forming her hands into the shape of a heart, Kolesnikova became an even greater symbol of resistance when Belarusian authorities tried to deport her. She responded by tearing up her passport at the border and walking back into Belarus. Advertisement Released alongside Tsikhanouski was longtime Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty correspondent Ihar Karnei, the U.S. government-funded broadcaster confirmed. Karnei, who had also worked with prominent Belarusian and Russian newspapers, had been serving a three-year service on extremism charges he rejected as a sham. 'The release was a big surprise for me,' Karnei told AP in a phone interview Saturday. 'I didn't believe it until the very end, but now I understand that other political prisoners deserve the same.' He said that he spent about six months in solitary confinement. 'Most people suffer simply for their beliefs and do not deserve these terrible conditions and terms,' Karnei said. RFE/RL's Belarusian service had been designated extremist in the country, a common label handed to anyone who criticizes Lukashenko's government. As a result, working for it or spreading its content has become a criminal offense. 'We are deeply grateful to President Trump for securing the release of this brave journalist, who suffered at the hands of the Belarusian authorities,' the broadcaster's CEO Stephen Capus said Saturday in a press release. Karnei was detained several times while covering the 2020 protests. Unlike many of his colleagues, he chose to stay in Belarus despite the ensuing repression. He was arrested again in July 2023, as police raided his apartment seizing phones and computers. The group Reporters Without Borders says Belarus is Europe's leading jailer of journalists. At least 40 are serving long prison sentences, according to the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists. Many face beatings, poor medical care and the inability to contact lawyers or relatives, according to activists and former inmates. Advertisement Belarus also freed an Estonian national who had set up an NGO to raise funds for Belarusian refugees. According to the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Allan Roio was detained last January, and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on charges of establishing an extremist organization.

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

Belarus opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski freed from jail after rare visit by top US envoy

A jailed opposition leader in Belarus has been freed and is now in Lithuania. Siarhei Tsikhanouski was released along with 13 other political prisoners following talks between Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Keith Kellogg, who is President Trump's envoy for Ukraine. Mr Kellogg became the highest-ranking US official in years to visit Belarus, which is a close ally of Russia. Mr Tsikhanouski, a blogger and activist, was arrested after announcing he would run for the presidency against Mr Lukashenko in the 2020 election. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison the following year after a court found him guilty of organising mass unrest and of inciting social hatred. After he was detained, his wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya ran in his place and she became an opposition leader who is now in exile in Lithuania. Although Mr Lukashenko was officially declared the winner of the election, the result was denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham. On Saturday, a video on Ms Tsikhanouskaya's social media showed Mr Tsikhanouski getting out of a minibus and smiling despite his emaciated appearance. He and his wife hugged as their supporters clapped. She said: "My husband is free. It's difficult to describe the joy in my heart." She thanked Mr Trump, Mr Kellogg and "all European allies" for their efforts in getting him released. But she added her team's work was "not finished", with more than 1,100 political prisoners still locked up in Belarus. The 14 who were freed on Saturday included five Belarus nationals as well as three Poles, two Latvians, two Japanese citizens, one Estonian and one Swede. Among those released was Ihar Karnei, a former journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 'Free world needs you' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X the release was "fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka (sic) regime". "The free world needs you, Siarhei!", Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X. At the meeting between Mr Lukashenko and Mr Kellogg in the Belarusian capital Minsk, the pair hugged. Mr Lukashenko said: "I really hope that our conversation will be very sincere and open. Otherwise, what is the point of meeting? "If we are clever and cunning in front of each other, we will not achieve results. You have made a lot of noise in the world with your arrival." Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, secured a seventh term in office following an election in January this year that the opposition called a farce. Could Belarus sanctions be lifted? It was not immediately clear whether Mr Kellogg's visit might pave the way for the lifting of some US sanctions against Belarus. They were imposed over the crackdown on the 2020 protests and Mr Lukashenko's support of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Belarus has allowed the Kremlin to use its territory to send troops and weapons into Ukraine, and also to put its forces and nuclear weapons there.

CNN

2 hours ago

• CNN

Belarus frees key opposition figure Sergey Tikhanovsky following rare visit from top US envoy

Belarus has freed Sergey Tikhanovsky, a key dissident figure and the husband of exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, following a rare visit by a senior US official, Tikhanovskaya's team announced on Saturday. Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger and activist who was jailed in 2020, arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, alongside 13 other political prisoners, his wife's team said. The release came just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with US President Donald Trump's envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Minsk. A video published on his wife's official Telegram account showed Tikhanovsky disembarking a white minibus, with a shaved head and broad smile. He pulled Tikhanovskaya into a long embrace as their supporters applauded. 'My husband is free. It's difficult to describe the joy in my heart,' Tikhanovskaya told reporters. But she added her team's work is 'not finished' while over 1,100 political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus. Tikhanovsky was jailed after announcing plans to challenge Lukashenko in the 2020 election. Following his arrest, his wife ran in his stead, rallying large crowds across the country. Official results of the election handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham. As unprecedented protests broke out in the aftermath of the vote, Tikhanovskaya left the country under pressure from the authorities. Her husband was later sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison on charges of organizing mass riots. Other prominent dissidents remain in Belarusian jails, among them Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges widely denounced as politically motivated. Also behind bars is Viktor Babaryka, a former banker who was widely seen in 2020 as Lukashenko's main electoral rival, and Maria Kolesnikova, a charismatic leader of that year's mass protests. Released alongside Tikhanovsky was longtime Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondent Ihar Karnei, the US government-funded broadcaster confirmed. Karnei, who had also worked with prominent Belarusian and Russian newspapers, had been serving a three-year service on extremism charges he rejected as a sham. RFE/RL's Belarusian service had been designated extremist in the country, a common label handed to anyone who criticizes Lukashenko's government. As a result, working for it or spreading its content has become a criminal offense. 'We are deeply grateful to President Trump for securing the release of this brave journalist, who suffered at the hands of the Belarusian authorities,' the broadcaster's CEO Stephen Capus said Saturday in a press release. Karnei was detained several times while covering the 2020 protests. Unlike many of his colleagues, he chose to stay in Belarus despite the ensuing repression. He was arrested again in July 2023, as police raided his apartment seizing phones and computers. Belarus also freed an Estonian national who had set up an NGO to raise funds for Belarusian refugees. According to the Estonian Foreign Ministry, Allan Roio was detained last January, and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on charges of establishing an extremist organization.