Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, September 9, 2021.
Mikhail Voskresensky | Kremlin Sputnik | Via Reuters
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday released 123 prisoners of war, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Biaryatsky and opposition leader Maria Kaleznikova, after two days of talks with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy.
In return, the United States agreed to lift sanctions on Belarus’ Kali. Potash is an important ingredient in fertilizers, and the former Soviet state is one of the world’s leading producers.
Lukashenko’s release of prisoners was the largest to date since the Trump administration began talks earlier this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Western governments had previously shunned him for suppressing dissent and supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Bialiatsky says the human rights fight will continue
Nine of the released prisoners left Belarus for Lithuania, and 114 were taken to Ukraine, officials said.
Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatsky speaks after he and Belarusian human rights organization Vijasna were awarded the 2020 Rights Life Award in Stockholm on December 3, 2020.
Anders Wiklund | AFP | Getty Images
Bialiatsky, a co-recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is a human rights activist who fought for political prisoners for many years before becoming a political prisoner himself. He had been in prison since July 2021.
Visibly aged since his last public appearance, he was all smiles as he hugged exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya as he arrived at the US embassy in Lithuania.
Bialiatsky told Reuters that nearly 40 people had spent the previous night in a prison bunk with him and that he was still grasping at the idea of being free.
He said the human rights goals for which he and his fellow campaigners won the Nobel Prize had not yet been realized.
“Thousands of people have been and remain incarcerated…so our fight continues,” he said in his first public comments in the three years since receiving the award.
Norway’s Nobel Committee expressed its “deep relief and heartfelt joy” at his release.
Kaleznikova, a leader of large protests against Lukashenko in 2020, was among a large group taken to Ukraine by bus.
“Of course, first of all it is an incredible feeling of happiness. Seeing with your own eyes the people who are dear to you, hugging them and understanding that now we are all free people. I am very happy to see a free sunset for the first time,” she said in a video published by the Ukrainian Telegram channel Khochu Zhit.
It showed him embracing Viktar Babaryka, an opposition politician who was arrested in 2020 while preparing to face Lukashenko in the election. Babaryka said her son Eduardo is still in prison in Belarus.
Kalesnikava’s sister, Tatyana Homich, told Reuters she was worried that he would refuse to leave Belarus and was prepared to persuade him.
“I’m really looking forward to hugging Maria…The last five years have been very difficult for us, but now that I’ve talked to her (on the phone), it feels like five years never happened,” she said.
US seeks to separate Lukashenko and Putin
U.S. officials told Reuters that the engagement with Lukashenko was, at least to some degree, part of an effort to wean him away from President Vladimir Putin’s influence, an effort that has so far been viewed with extreme skepticism by Belarusian rebels.
Earlier, President Trump’s special envoy John Cole told reporters in Minsk: “Following President Trump’s direction, the United States will lift sanctions on Cali.”
The United States and the European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus after Minsk launched a violent crackdown on protesters after a chaotic 2020 election and imprisoned nearly all of Lukashenko’s opponents who did not flee the country.
The sanctions were tightened after President Lukashenko authorized Belarus to be used as a base for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Belarusian rebels in exile thanked President Trump and said the fact that Lukashenko agreed to release prisoners in exchange for concessions on Kali was evidence of the effectiveness of sanctions.
Opposition parties have consistently viewed President Trump’s outreach to Lukashenko as a humanitarian effort, but have argued that EU sanctions should remain in place.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, an exiled opposition leader, said: “US sanctions are about people. EU sanctions are about systemic change to stop wars, enable democratic transitions and ensure accountability. These approaches are not contradictory to each other, but complement each other.”
Mr Lukashenko has previously denied that there are political prisoners in Belarus, describing the people in question as “bandits”. As recently as August, he asked why he had to release people he deemed opponents of the state who might “wage war against us again.”
President Trump called Lukashenko “the highly respected president of Belarus,” a term that has sparked a backlash from opposition parties who see him as a dictator. He called for the release of up to 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners, whom Trump called “hostages.”
The US Embassy in Lithuania said: “The United States stands ready for additional engagement with Belarus that advances US interests and will continue our diplomatic efforts to free the remaining political prisoners in Belarus.”
The Belarusian human rights group Viasna, which is listed as an extremist organization by the city of Minsk, put the number of political prisoners at 1,227 on the eve of their release on Saturday.
