Belarus releases the leader of the imprisoned opposition, more than a dozen others after the visit of the American envoy

Belaruse released the opposition figure to the best opposition Sergei Tikhanovsky and more than a dozen other political prisoners on Saturday after an appeal of the White House, announced the Tsikhanouskaya team on Saturday, a tank heating signal between Washington and Moscow Belarus.

The launch occurred only a few hours after the retired Lieutenant Keith Kellogg, special envoy of President Trump for Ukraine and Russia, met with Belaruso President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest profile visit of an American official to the authoritarian state in years.

Tikhanovsky’s wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who took the opposition movement mantle after her husband’s imprisonment, thanked President Trump directly for negotiating the agreement.

Lukashenko spokeswoman said the Belarusian leader had ordered the release of prisoners in Trump’s “application”, Russian state media reported.

Mr. Trump seemed to take credit, writing “thanks to President Trump!” On its true social platform, together with a link to a news about the release of the prisoner.

European politicians and members of the exiled opposition of Belarus also welcomed the news.

“This is fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all political prisoners who suffer under the brutal Lukashenka regime,” said the head of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, in X.

“Europe continues to ask for its immediate launch,” he added.

Poland’s Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, expressed his “most sincere joy”, while Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics called Tikhanovsky’s freedom as a “very anticipated and very delayed moment.”

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul welcomed Tikhanovsky’s launch as “fantastically good news”, in a position to X.

“At the same time, we must not forget the many other prisoners in Belarus. Lukashenko must finally free them,” he added.

Pavel Latushko, a former Minister of Culture in Belarus who supported 2020 protests against Lukashenko, also cheered the liberation of Tikhanovsky as an “important moment.”

Tikhanovsky, 46, had been imprisoned for more than five years.

The popular YouTuber had planned to run against Lukashenko in the presidential elections of August 2020, but was arrested and arrested weeks before the vote.

He was sentenced in 2021 to 18 years in prison for “organizing disturbances” and “inciting hatred”, then another 18 months for “insubordination.”

Svetlana, a political rookie at the time of her husband’s arrest, ran against Lukashenko instead, but lost after what the opposition described as a generalized falsification. Later he fled a Belarus.

“It is difficult to describe the joy in my heart,” he said in an X post after her husband’s release.

Among the other 13 released were Radio Liberty Iharnei’s journalist, arrested in 2023 and imprisoned for participating in an “extremist” organization.

They have now been transferred from Belarus to Lithuania, where they were receiving “adequate attention,” said Lithuania Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys.

Although none of the released prisoners needed emergency medical assistance, “one of them needed emergency medical attention” since “they were imprisoned in difficult conditions,” Budrys told the LRT public broadcaster, without elaborating.

The Swedish-Bellara citizen Galina Krasnyonskaya, arrested in 2023 for allegedly supporting Ukraine, was also released, said Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristerson.

Belarus, governed by Lukashenko since 1994, has banned all genuine opposition parties. It is the only European country that retains the death penalty as punishment.

The country of Eastern Europe still has more than 1,000 political prisoners in their prisons, according to the Belarusian Human Rights Viasna Group.

Since assuming the position, Trump has been involved in direct conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ending the policy of his predecessor to isolate the Russian president.

Since then, the two nuclear powers have worked to normalize diplomatic ties, which for years have remained at their lowest point since the cold war.

In February, an American citizen who had been arrested In Belarusia he was one of the three prisoners released in custody of the United States. Chris Smith, deputy secretary of Eastern Europe, said at that time that the agreement was negotiated by the Belarusan authorities and pointed out a desire for Lukashenko to have a stronger relationship with the United States.

And in January, the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio announced that Belarus had “unilaterally” released an American detention woman.

Tikhanovsky was held for years in incommunicado, and in 2023 they told his wife that he had “dead.”

In a video posted by Viasna on Saturday, it seemed almost unrecognizable, its shaved head and a demacred face.

A charismatic activist, Tikhanovsky drew the anger of the authorities to describe Lukashenko as a “cockroach” and his campaign slogan was “to stop the cockroach.”

Lukashenko demanded an overwhelming victory in the 2020 elections, a result that caused massive opposition protests that the authorities violently suppressed.

The Belarusian autocrat claimed a seventh record mandate in the elections earlier this year that the observers dismissed as a farce.

• Belarus
• Russia
• Trump administration