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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vodka Toasts With the Dictator of Belarus: How Diplomacy Gets Done in Trump 2.0
A bus carrying 14 political prisoners with bags over their heads hurtled through the lush Belarusian countryside one morning last month, its destination unknown. Five years after President Alexander Lukashenko launched an unsparing crackdown on dissent in the former Soviet nation, some of the captives feared they were about to be executed. Among the group was the prominent dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski whose wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, became the face of the Belarusian opposition movement after his arrest in 2020. As the bus approached its destination, their minders from the Belarusian security services — which still goes by its Soviet name the KGB — removed the bags from their heads but told them to keep their eyes fixed on the floor. 'We kept looking ahead all the same,' said Ihar Karnei, a Belarusian journalist who was among the group and had been imprisoned for two years. 'We were interested: Where were they taking us?' The bus pulled up to a field not far from Belarus' border with Lithuania. The door of the van flew open, and they received a surprising greeting: 'President Trump sent me to take you home.' The man speaking to the bewildered prisoners was John Coale, one of President Donald Trump's lawyers and now a deputy special envoy to Ukraine. It took a moment for the reality of what was happening to sink in. 'They were terrified,' Coale recalled in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. 'Opening that door and getting them to realize that 'You are free' was quite a moment.' The prisoner release, a goodwill gesture by the Belarusian leader, marked the continuation of a cautious diplomatic opening between the United States and Belarus. The fraught relationship between the two countries came to a standstill in 2020 when protests against rigged elections were met with mass arrests and thousands of people were swept into the country's vast prison system. But the release also wouldn't have happened without Coale's efforts to forge a relationship with Lukashenko, including over a long lunch with vodka toasts. 'I did two shots, didn't throw up, but did not do a third one,' said Coale. The episode offers a window into the highly personalistic way in which foreign policy gets done during Trump's second term in office, as the president has tapped a slew of close friends and allies to serve as his envoys and implement his agenda abroad. Critics have balked at their lack of experience; after all, they smirk, can real estate magnate Steve Witkoff really lead negotiations to conclude Russia's war on Ukraine, tackle Iran's nuclear program and end Israel's war in Gaza? But the envoys bring the prospect of a direct line to the president and the chance to bypass State Department bureaucracy. They are also free to say and do things that traditional U.S. diplomats might not be able to. 'It's sort of easier to have an eye-to-eye conversation with the president's right hand,' said Artyom Shraibman, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dispatching the national security advisor or secretary of State (currently Marco Rubio in both cases), could be seen as a full legitimization of Belarus' isolated president, said Franak Viacorka, chief of staff to Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader. 'But if we speak about envoys — an envoy's task is to make deals, to solve crises,' he said. Coale's adventures in Belarus began with a call from the State Department in late April with a special request. Was he willing to go to Minsk to meet with Lukashenko, a man often described as Europe's last dictator? 'Fine,' said Coale. Could he fly out the next day? 'Not fine,' he replied. 'But I did it anyway.' The 78-year-old Coale is a plainspoken, veteran litigator perhaps best known for helping to broker a $386 billion settlement from Big Tobacco in the late 1990s. He's also had a winding political life; a longtime Democrat, Coale endorsed John McCain in 2008 and befriended Sarah Palin, before backing Democrat Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential bid. In 2021, he led Trump's longshot lawsuit against social media companies, accusing them of censorship. 'The woke stuff has moved me to the right,' he said in one interview. He first met Trump some 20 years ago through his wife Greta Van Susteren, the former Fox News host who has interviewed the president on numerous occasions. Days after the call, Coale and a handful of U.S. diplomats crossed the border from Lithuania into Belarus, stopping on a country road to swap out the diplomatic license plates on their vehicles so as not to attract attention. They arrived at Independence Palace, Lukashenko's residence in central Minsk which, with its glass facade and swooping metal roof, is the size of a small airport terminal. 'It's so big that Tom Brady couldn't throw a pass from one end of the lobby to the other,' Coale said. The imposing complex on the capital's Victory Avenue was built as a symbol of the country's independence, according to the website of the Belarusian sovereignty was always tenuous. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies, Lukashenko has long relied on subsidies from Moscow to prop up his ailing economy. In 2022, Belarus was used as a staging ground for Russian troops in their full-scale assault on Ukraine which further cemented his alienation from the West. Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, preserving many of the institutions and habits of the country's Soviet past. He has proven skilled at playing Russia and the West off against each other, flirting with Washington and Brussels to get Putin's attention or secure relief from economic sanctions imposed on the country. Political prisoners have often been used as a bargaining chip. In 2015, Lukashenko released all those deemed wrongfully detained, prompting Europe and America to lift some sanctions. The reprieve was to be short-lived. Over 5,000 people have been convicted of politically motivated charges over the past five years, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Vyasna, and some 1,150 remain in prison. Trump has made freeing wrongfully detained Americans a priority of his foreign policy, creating an opening for authoritarian leaders like Lukashenko to get his attention. Within a week of Trump's inauguration in January, Belarus unilaterally released U.S. citizen Anastasia Nuhfer from prison. 'Lukashenko is afraid of Trump,' said Viacorka. '[He] knows very well how to deal with ordinary politicians, but he doesn't have a clue how to deal with these strong and unpredictable leaders like Trump.' Three more political prisoners were released in February, after Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Chris Smith quietly travelled to Belarus, becoming the most senior U.S. official to visit the country in over five years. By April, they were on the cusp of getting another American citizen released and dispatched Coale in a bid to seal the deal. Over a long lunch in the palace, Coale was tasked with getting to know the garrulous Belarusian leader. 'They told me to charm him. To yuck it up with him, so I did that,' he said. '[Lukashenko] brought up stuff about the State Department and I said, 'Yeah all they want to do is blah blah blah,' so he loved that.' Lukashenko struck Coale as smart, savvy. 'He does want better relations with the United States,' Coale said, adding that the Belarusian leader seemed keen to play a role in negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine. At some point vodka — Lukashenko's own personal brand — was brought out and the toasts commenced. The Belarusian president offered a toast to Trump. Smith, the State Department official, nudged Coale to reciprocate, as is customary in the region. Coale followed suit with his own toast to Lukashenko, and soon, he began to worry about his stomach. As the afternoon wore on there were more toasts, and while there was little talk of politics, the two men got to know each other. A relationship was developing. 'It was all fun,' Coale said. Lukashenko seems to have agreed. Hours later, the American delegation got what they had come for as the Belarusian authorities handed over Youras Ziankovich, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was arrested in Moscow in 2021 and accused of plotting a coup against Lukashenko. The U.S. government deemed him wrongfully detained earlier this year. Discussions continued behind the scenes into the summer and by June, another prisoner release was set in motion. When she awoke on the morning of Saturday June 21, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had little idea that she was about to be reunited with her husband, Siarhei. A popular YouTube blogger, he was swiftly arrested after attempting to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential elections. Tsikhanouskaya, a soft-spoken former teacher, took up her husband's mantle after his arrest and was herself quickly forced into exile in Lithuania, becoming the most recognizable face of the Belarusian opposition. For five years she has shuttled between global capitals to raise awareness about her country's political prisoners, often carrying a folder bearing a photograph of her husband. On the morning her husband was released, Tsikhanouskaya was flying back from Poland to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. She knew that Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, had been in Belarus the night before with Coale and that negotiations about a prisoner release were underway. She speculated with her chief of staff, Viacorka, who might be released but didn't dare expect her husband would be included. Having been held without access to anyone on the outside for over two years, Siarhei was on a shortlist of some 200 prisoners deemed a priority for release by Belarusian human rights defenders on humanitarian grounds. The majority of the 14 people who were about to be released were citizens of other countries who had been swept up in the crackdown, or, had some kind of affiliation with the West. It wasn't until the morning of the release that Coale learned the final details of the prisoners to be freed. As Tsikhanouskaya made her way back to Vilnius, the bus carrying her husband and 13 other political prisoners made its way to the Belarusian border with Lithuania, after the KGB handed them over to Coale and representatives from the State Department. By the time the now-former prisoners made it to the border, it was hours since they had been fed. Many were gaunt after years of meager prison rations. Siarhei, once a bear of man, emerged from prison unrecognizable with hollow cheeks. 'For some reason, in one of our cars was a whole basket of little Tootsie Rolls,' said Coale, which they passed around the group. As they waited to be processed into the country, Coale and the other diplomats passed their cellphones around so people could call their loved ones and let them know that they had been released. 'Nobody had any idea this was happening,' he said. In the Vilnius airport, Tsikhanouskaya received a call from her husband, with whom she hadn't had any contact in over two years. 'When I heard the voice of my husband on the phone, it was a huge surprise,' she said. He told her: 'My dear, I am free.' While Trump's efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine have run headlong into Putin's intransigence, Tsikhanouskaya hopes that her country could offer the diplomatic victory that Trump craves so dearly. 'Belarus can be a success story for President Trump,' she said. '[A] free, independent Belarus is in the interest of the USA as well.' Lukashenko also senses an opportunity to return to relevance as the U.S. president seeks to strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine, said Shraibman of the Carnegie Endowment. 'He wants to be relevant to the peace process. He wants to speak to the big guys. This is a prize in itself.' But Belarus isn't Switzerland. 'Lukashenko is so, so deeply dependent on Putin and Russia these days that it is simply beyond the power of the United States, no matter how hard it tries, to decouple these two countries,' Shraibman said. Coale isn't too preoccupied with Lukashenko's diplomatic dance. 'That's for Rubio to worry about.' 'I look at the thing of, can I free some more people,' he told me. 'And if it plays into my purpose and what I'm trying to do, I don't care.' Solve the daily Crossword
Times
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Forged in the gulag, Belarus's real first couple is reunited
For Belarus's most prominent political prisoner, liberation from a cockroach-infested cell after years of solitary confinement began with a bag over the head. Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a charismatic entrepreneur and video blogger with millions of followers, was jailed in the run-up to presidential elections in August 2020 after announcing that he would challenge Aleksander Lukashenko, the country's dictator. In his absence his wife, Sviatlana, a stay-at-home mother with no political experience, stood instead, and was widely seen as the rightful winner of the subsequent rigged election in which Lukashenko declared victory. Faced with jail and separation from her two young children, she went into exile in neighbouring Lithuania. Then last month the couple's life took another dramatic twist. As Tsikhanouski was paying a rare visit to the exercise yard on June 20, a guard unexpectedly led him back to his cell. 'He told me to pack my things and gave me two minutes,' he said. 'Then they took me to another cell, put a bag over my head, handcuffed me and threw me into a car.' The men in the cell were members of the KGB, as the Belarusian security service is still known, who later bundled Tsikhanouski into a minibus that took him and 13 others who had fallen foul of the regime towards Lithuania. When they arrived at the frontier at about 11am the next day, a different group of men boarded the bus. 'They said: 'Take off the bags. You are now under the protection of American diplomacy. You will be given water and medical care.'' Tsikhanouski's first request was for coffee and a mobile to call his wife, who was surprised to see a Belarusian number flash up on her phone. Sviatlana knew that a prisoner release was about to happen but doubted her husband would be among those freed. 'He is considered to be the biggest enemy of Lukashenko and I was sure that he would be released only among the last of the political prisoners,' she said. 'Joy overwhelmed me. I didn't know what to do.' Sviatlana was nevertheless shocked by her husband's appearance when he emerged from the minibus a few hours later near the American embassy in Vilnius and hugged her. Once weighing more than 21st, he was now below 13st and in poor health for a man of 46. 'If I had just been walking past him on the street rather than getting out of the bus, I don't think I would have recognised him,' she said. The pair make a slightly unlikely couple as they sit in a meeting room in the anonymous block on the edge of Vilnius that has become one of two bases for the Belarusian opposition, who are split between the Lithuanian capital and Warsaw. Tsikhanouski's cheeks are sunken and his hair, which was shaved to the skull in jail, has barely grown back. His red T-shirt hangs loosely off him. A different man from the robust figure in family photographs, he talks quickly, as if he is making up for time lost in jail — especially during the final two years and three months, when he was denied contact with the outside world. By contrast, Sviatlana, 42, his wife of just over two decades, looks the part of the assured stateswoman she has become over the past five years, with her neat black bob, elegant pink jacket and perfectly manicured nails. As we speak, she flips effortlessly between Russian and the English she learnt when she was sent aged 12 on a trip to Ireland for children from parts of Belarus affected by the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine nine years earlier. Security for our meeting is tight. Aides are still reeling from an interview the couple gave earlier in the week to two young men claiming to be journalists who asked strange, provocative questions apparently intended to drive a wedge between them and their Lithuanian hosts. They called the police, who found that the men had been hired for $100 over Telegram, the messaging app, presumably by the KGB. The prisoners' release was part of a US-brokered deal under which Lukashenko, who has run Belarus since 1994, was rewarded with a meeting the same day with Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, that he could show off on Belarusian state television. More prisoners are expected to be released next month, although in the meantime another 28 have been detained. • I'm fighting Putin and Lukashenko — for my husband's life Yet three week later, it remains unclear why the Belarusian leader chose to include the man who mocked him so mercilessly in his videos among the initial 14 — most of whom had foreign passports — rather than any of the country's estimated 1,100 other political prisoners, who are thought to include two Britons, whose names have not been released. Among those still held is Maria Kolesnikova, a flautist turned opposition activist who was one of a pair of women working with Tsikhanouskaya on her election campaign. Veronika Tsepkalo, the other woman, fled abroad to avoid arrest. One theory is that Lukashenko may believe that by releasing Tsikhanouski, a larger-than-life figure, he will provoke disagreement between the couple, and the opposition as a whole, over who is now the boss. Tskihouskaya aims to prove them wrong. Her husband, though 'a natural leader', will settle into the role of 'first gentleman', she believes. 'He fully respects, understands and accepts that I am the president-elect of Belarus. I don't see any competition between us.' I turn to Tsikhouski for affirmation. 'By my nature, I can't do diplomatic work like my wife,' he admits. 'She's more calm, more practical and has the experience that I don't have.' He has instead resumed his vlogging career. 'My aim is to take concrete steps to make this regime collapse.' Franak Viacorka, Tsikhanouskaya's chief of staff, thinks that Lukashenko has badly miscalculated, just as he did when he allowed her to run against him in 2020, deriding her as 'this little girl'. While Tsikhanouski was in jail, she had reason to temper her words and actions out of concern over what the regime might do to her husband. 'Now they don't have this leverage any more,' said Viacorka. As a couple, they must process their divergent experiences of the past five years. 'I had to sleep on an iron bed,' Tsikhanouski said. 'There was no mattress, blanket, pillow or anything.' Besides the cockroaches, there were mice and rats, which crawled up the pipes. He and his wife wrote letters but were allowed only one brief phone call. Then in March 2023, for reasons that were not explained, Tsikhanouski was placed completely incommunicado. 'It was hard not to have any news about relatives and friends, not to receive letters and phone calls, or meet my lawyers,' he said. 'I was not even allowed a priest to confess or receive communion.' Conditions improved after the death in February 2024 of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, in a Siberian labour camp. Tsikhanouski's jailors appear not to have wanted to lose him too, especially after he managed to convince them his health was worse than it really was — which may have helped secure his release. All this time, his wife was left alone to look after the children, while pursuing a career on the world stage that she never sought or prepared for, meeting the likes of Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson, who 'adopted' her husband after he was jailed. Initially she told her son Karnei, who was then aged seven, and her daughter, Ahniya, then four, that their father was away on a business trip. 'Then, as it became more and more obvious that it might take a while, I told them the truth: that their dad was a hero who 'wanted a better life for you in Belarus. He was sent to jail for this'. And they've known ever since.' She urged them not to tell their friends at their Russian-speaking school. A few days after Tskihanouski's release, Ahniya, who had not at first recognised her father, asked her mother if she could tell people he was back. 'It was very important for her to be able to say she now had a father,' she said. Her son, meanwhile, was relieved he was no longer the only man in the house. 'It had been such a weight on him.' Even now, for security reasons, Tsikhanouskaya advises the children not to reveal the identity of their parents. 'They are within the risk zone,' she said. The pair are now looking forward to spending time together with their children. What comes next for Belarus is less clear. Lukashenko rode out the biggest protests in the country's history after the election in 2020, which at one point drew 200,000 people on to the streets. This January he won a seventh consecutive term with an implausible 87 per cent that will take him to 2030, when he will be 75. • After a winter of discontent, has Lukashenko crushed all opposition in Belarus? 'All these years, Belarus has been like a big gulag,' Tsikhanouskaya said. 'Lukashenko is a dictator, he intimidates people and repressions have never stopped, even for a single day. 'But the situation has changed for him. He realises that during these five years he did not manage to persuade Belarusians to like him again, love him again or trust him again.' Lukashenko also allowed Vladimir Putin to drag Belarus into a supporting role in his war against Ukraine, which has gone down badly with his people. The old guard, known as 'bisons', who have been with the former Soviet-era state farm boss since he was elected as the new country's first president, remain loyal. But younger members of his inner circle are beginning to lose faith and are leaking information to the opposition, such as details of sanctions busting, which they dutifully pass on to their Western allies. Rather than oust Lukashenko through an uprising, the couple hope to encourage these waverers to join a national dialogue — similar to the one that ended Communism in Poland in the late 1980s. 'We are not threatening to hang them from the streetlamps,' she said. 'We tell them that Lukashenko will die one day and they have to think about themselves.' Encouraged by Kellogg's visit, Tsikhanouskaya and her supporters are looking to America to make this happen. Although the couple have yet to talk to President Trump, they would like to meet him — if only to thank him for Tsikhanouski's release. 'It's very difficult for Trump to deal with Russia, but Belarus is like low-hanging fruit for him,' she said. 'The Belarusian people are united around the idea of change. Trump has the power and leverage to bring it about.'
Reuters
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Don't relax pressure on Lukashenko, freed Belarus dissident tells the West
VILNIUS, July 2 (Reuters) - The West needs to keep up pressure on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to try to force democratic change, newly released dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski told Reuters. Tsikhanouski, who walked free last month after more than five years in prison, said now was not the time to contemplate easing sanctions on Lukashenko, a Russian ally who has ruled the former Soviet state for 31 years. Over the past year, Lukashenko has released more than 300 opposition figures and activists from jail. Another 16, including some convicted of "extremism," were pardoned on Wednesday. Tsikhanouski, who had attempted to run in the 2020 presidential election, is, by far, the most prominent opponent that Lukashenko has freed to date. The move raises questions about what he wants in return, and how the West should respond. "He should be told: you will face even bigger pressure if you don't stop repressions... The release of prisoners is not enough: he needs to stop further jailings, and sanctions should only be relieved if he agrees to undertake some political reforms," Tsikhanouski, 46, said in an interview in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. "The West has a chance to achieve a democratic country" in Belarus, he added. Lukashenko says there are no political prisoners in Belarus and that those behind bars are law-breakers who chose their own fate. His spokeswoman has said he freed Tsikhanouski "strictly on humanitarian grounds with the aim of family reunification". Belarus, a country of just 9 million people, is of strategic importance because it borders Russia, Ukraine and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Lukashenko, a close Russian ally, allowed President Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine from Belarus during the 2022 Russian invasion, and later agreed to host Russian nuclear warheads. The trigger for Tsikhanouski's release was a trip to Belarus by U.S. presidential envoy Keith Kellogg, the most senior U.S. official to visit the country in more than five years. Freed together with 13 others, he was driven across the border into Lithuania for an emotional reunion with his wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of the Belarus opposition. "By releasing me, (Lukashenko) indicates he is ready to release people whom he considers his personal enemies," said Tsikhanouski. "I was jailed by him to shut me up. Now he released a strong and armed person – because my word is my weapon ... I plan to use it, so that the regime collapses, Belarus becomes democratic and joins the European family." A firebrand who captured the imagination of many in 2020 with his social media videos mocking the leadership, Tsikhanouski says his goal was to encourage alternative points of view inside Belarus, where government opponents risk jail. Human rights activists say around 1,150 critics of the government remain behind bars. Many Belarusians have "lost belief and enthusiasm," Tsikhanouski said. "We need to punch through... The war needs to be fought inside the heads of the people." Looking gaunt, he told Reuters his weight has fallen to just 77 kilograms (170 pounds) from 135 kg when he entered prison. At a press conference the day after his release, he broke down in sobs as he recounted how his 9-year-old daughter had not recognised him on his return. "I start feeling tired by lunch time. I need a nap," he said when asked how he was recuperating. "But the love of my close ones, my wife, the children, it helps my psychological health. I am recovering fast."
DW
26-06-2025
- Politics
- DW
Belarus: Tsikhanouski says his release gives people hope – DW – 06/26/2025
In his first big interview after his release, Belarussian opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski tells DW about the conditions in prison, his wife's transformation and hope for the people of Belarus. One of the most well-known Belarusian political prisoners, blogger Siarhei Tsikhanouski, was released on June 21 following a visit to Belarus by Keith Kellogg, President Trump's special envoy for Ukraine. Tsikhanouski gave his first big interview since being freed to DW's Alexandra Boguslawskaja, who had also interviewed him five years ago in Belarus, shortly before his arrest. Tsikhanouski was detained in May 2020, after being denied registration as a presidential candidate challenging Alexander Lukashenko and later convicted to 18 years in prison. His wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya assumed the candidacy and ran for presidency in his stead. She was forced to flee Belarus after Lukashenko claimed victory in an election which observers label as rigged. Tsikhaniuskaya has been living in Vilnius ever since and became the leader of Belarussion democratic opposition in Tsikhanouski: I couldn't believe it. I spent five years in a solitary confinement cell, sometimes it was three square meters, sometimes six, and sometimes even 18. And then, when you finally see open space around you, you're overwhelmed by emotions. The doors of the bus opened and I saw Svetlana. I couldn't believe it and had tears in my eyes. I hugged her and said, "Let's go somewhere.' We found a quiet spot to talk in private. Honestly, even now, I still can't believe it. The emotions were so intense, the tears just kept coming. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 videoThe regime used to imprison people on supposedly non-political charges, things like alleged economic crimes. Since I'm a businessman, I thought they'd give me three or four years on some fake economic charges, and only after the elections. But I never expected to scare them so much by pushing for real change. Once they realized that, they decided to lock me up preemptively, silence and bad-mouth me, and keep me behind not being able to talk to anyone — literally no one. Not hearing a single kind word from anyone because all you ever hear are insults, threats, and negativity from the guards. They try to convince you that you're nobody, that you've been forgotten, that everyone has given up, and no one is fighting for you anymore. But I didn't believe them. I knew that many Belarusians supported me — I had seen that support on the streets with my own eyes. Thinking about my family was hard because I had no information about them. I had the chance to read books, and I read constantly. It helped me take my mind off everything as I waited for the day I'd be freed. I knew that day would of course, it's a metaphor. The US administration has been preparing for the release of Belarusian political prisoners for a few years. The groundwork has been laid — I've heard this partly from diplomats involved in our release and from other sources. The prosecutor visited me in prison last year, during the Biden administration. So the preparations were already underway, but under Donald Trump, this effort really picked up pace. The thing is, Trump was planning to resolve the Ukraine issue quickly, which would lead to lifting sanctions on Russia. Since Belarus and Russia are part of a Union State, if the sanctions on Russia were lifted, the Lukashenko regime would automatically gain full access to all opportunities — so sanctions on Belarus would have to be lifted too. And if that happens, the political prisoners would have to be released as not about Trump personally. It's about the big politics where everything is connected and you can't just solve the issue of Belarussian political prisoners alone. It's definitely an important issue, but it's not as big as the war in Ukraine. That's a nightmare, a tragedy for all of Europe. And I think European officials and diplomats are doing the right thing by ignoring the regime. As long as political prisoners remain behind bars, there should be no dialogue with that time, I was still in pre-trial detention. My lawyers were visiting me, and I had newspaper subscriptions, so I found out right away. I couldn't believe it. I still don't understand how Putin, how the Russians could invade another country under the pretext that some Russians in Ukraine or the Russian language were under threat. If you really believe Russians are being mistreated, then bring them to your country. Build homes for them, give them pensions. Why kill so many people? After that, I stopped receiving any information at all, so I really don't know what's been going on. Now, I'm just beginning to take it all in and try to understand it. But one thing is clear to me: I fully support President Zelenskyy. He's facing an incredibly difficult situation, and we all need to stand behind him — even if he makes a mistake here and I didn't have to get to know her all over again. But honestly, I was surprised at how much she changed. She became such a businesslike woman — she wasn't a business lady before. But now she's so professional and driven. But at home, nothing has really changed. With the kids and with me, it's the same. The only difference is she's just completely exhausted all the not just that it could — it will. Absolutely, it will. And I think very soon you'll see us in many cities in Germany and in other European capitals as well. As for me personally — you'll definitely see me on at all. I asked my wife the same question — and despite everything we've been through, she said she doesn't regret anything either. We couldn't have done it any other way. She had to submit documents as a presidential candidate in my stead. And then she couldn't but fight for me, once her husband was thrown in prison for nothing. She knew I wasn't a criminal — and not fighting wasn't an option.
Fox News
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Belarusian dissident thanks Trump admin for his freedom, demands the UN act
EXCLUSIVE — Belarusian dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski is free after spending more than five years as a political prisoner, and now he is calling for those still behind bars to be released. In a video message played before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, Tsikhanouski makes a desperate plea for international intervention. "I was tortured, I was held in solitary confinement, I was frozen. I wasn't even given a pen to write a few words. For years, I didn't receive a single letter, not even from my daughter. They filled my ears with lies and propaganda. They tried to convince me that everyone had forgotten me. What is happening in Belarusian prisons is not law enforcement. It is torture, abuse, and the destruction of human beings. People are literally being killed behind bars," Tsikhanouski said in the video, which was provided to Fox News Digital by UN Watch. Tsikhanouski credited the international community — especially the Trump administration — for his release, which was secured after U.S. Special Envoy on Ukraine and Russia Gen. Keith Kellogg met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. In addition to Tsikhanouski, 13 other political prisoners were released through U.S. mediation. The Belarusian dissident said in the video that he would not have made it out alive if it were not for "international solidarity" and "the efforts of the USA administration." In his first address as U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Nils Muižnieks warned that, since Jan. 2025, the human rights situation has "continued to deteriorate." He also noted that authorities in Belarus have abused "highly problematic" legislation, including a prohibition on insulting the president or other public officials. "Belarus has a very large number of people behind bars who should not be there, including opposition politicians, human rights defenders, journalists, independent trade union activists, environmental defenders and lawyers," Muižnieks said before Tsikhanouski's video was played. He also described the ill-treatment of prisoners by Belarusian authorities. After the council heard Tsikhanouski's message, Muižnieks said that the recently-freed dissident's words "carry extra weight." Following his release, Tsikhanouski was reunited with his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children in Lithuania. Tsikhanouskaya is the exiled Belarusian opposition leader whom some countries recognize as the president-elect. Tsikhanouskaya thanked President Donald Trump, Kellogg and the State Department for their efforts, which led to her husband's freedom. "My husband Siarhei is free! It's hard to describe the joy in my heart," Tsikhanouskaya wrote on X. "We're not done. 1,150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released." UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer joined the call to see the remaining 1,150 prisoners gain their freedom. "Siarhei Tsikhanouski is a symbol of courage who paid a heavy price for daring to challenge Lukashenko's dictatorship. United Nations Watch is honored to give him the floor at the UN Human Rights Council just days after his release from prison. His voice, silenced by the regime for more than five years as he was tortured in jail, now speaks for millions of Belarusians who continue to demand freedom and human rights," Neuer told Fox News Digital. Neuer said Tsikhanouski's message to the U.N. was "a direct challenge to the regimes that continue to silence their critics." Thursday, June 26, also marks the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Tsikhanouskaya wrote on X to mark the occasion and shared a photo illustrating the effects that five years in prison had on her husband. "Today is the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. My husband survived five years of isolation and cruelty in the Belarus regime's prisons. Many others still endure it. If we had given up, Siarhei wouldn't be free. That's why we keep going—until everyone is home," Tsikhanouskaya wrote. According to NPR, Tsikhanouski lost more than 41% of his body weight. He went into prison weighing 298 pounds but weighed just 174 pounds when he was released on June 21. In response to a request for comment on Tsikhanouski's statement, UN Human Rights Council spokesperson Pascal Sim directed Fox News Digital to a recording of the hearing, particularly Muižnieks' remarks. The U.N. Human Rights Office also directed Fox News Digital to Muižnieks' statement.
