Latest news with #SviatlanaTsikhanouskaya
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Got Her Husband Out of Prison in Belarus. Here's What She Wants Him to Know.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, an opposition leader in Belarus, hadn't heard from her husband Siarhei in more than two years. Not since Belarusian authorities placed him in 'incommunicado' detention, in full isolation. And then he called her. 'My dear wife,' he said. 'I'm free.' He had been released from prison after negotiations between authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Trump administration officials, and was at the border between Belarus and Lithuania. He and 13 other political prisoners were heading to the American embassy in Vilnius. Tsikhanouskaya and Siarhei have since reintroduced him to their children, traveled to a solidarity rally in Poland and done interviews with major news outlets. But both Tsikhanouskaya and her husband, a blogger and political activist who was preparing to challenge Lukashenko in Belarus' 2020 election when he was imprisoned, are grappling with the opposition's role in what comes next. In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Tsikhanouskaya described the joy of finally reuniting her family even as she said there was far more work to be done. She also made clear that a certain peace-seeking president could help her cause. 'We ask President Trump, go further, free them all,' she said. 'Use your influence again. We believe that you can do this, and Belarusians will never forget it.' The administration's efforts in Belarus come as Trump continues to search for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine, and as Lukashenko looks for a means to end the political isolation his relationship with Vladimir Putin has wrought. Along with freeing more political prisoners, Tsikhanouskaya is desperate to make sure Belarus isn't pulled further into Russia's orbit as part of negotiations to end Putin's war. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. When did you know that your husband Siarhei would be freed? The moment when I understood that he was free was when he called me from the border, just a direct call, and I heard his voice, and he told me, 'My dear wife, I'm free.' I could hardly believe this, because I was sure that he would be one of the last who would be released from prison, but who understands the logic of this regime? We had several lists of people to be released, humanitarian lists where people who were about to die were there and people who were incommunicado, some others. They chose Siarhei, I don't know why. A lot has been made of the term 'incommunicado.' What exactly does that mean in the context of Belarus? Incommunicado means that a person is kept in full isolation. Since March 2023, more than two years, we lost full connection with Siarhei. A lawyer wasn't able to attend to him. Letters were not received from my husband. Nothing. Just forced disappearance. And we have eight people at the moment on this list, and I wasn't sure if he was alive, what prison he's kept in, what state he's in. The regime is doing this to blackmail relatives, put a burden on the shoulders of their relatives. This knowing nothing about people is, of course, very, very painful. Can you speak to what it was like to see Siarhei for the first time post-prison sentence? It was, it is now, shocking to see him in such a state. He lost half of his weight. He says that for the last couple of months, they even gave him additional portions of butter, cottage cheese. When he got out of the minivan, I knew that he would be there, but if I had seen him somewhere else, I wouldn't have recognized him. And when he returned home, our young daughter didn't recognize him at all. I said, 'Dear, look who came?' And she just said, 'Hello, who are you?' And when he started talking, she just recognized his voice. Of course, there were oceans of tears, hugs, but prison changes people a lot. It's like gray face, like very skinny people. It's difficult to see, but the physical state, maybe it's possible to improve somehow. But all those memories from prison, the emotional trauma, psychological trauma, it will not be able to be softened. Has it set in that he's back? How has it been to have him back in the movement? The release of Siarhei, it's brought a boost of energy to the Belarusian people, first of all. It was such news for people. And he's full of energy. For five years, he was thinking about new ideas, new projects, how to change the situation in Belarus. And now we have to use this momentum to direct more attention to the topic of Belarus, to the topic of political prisoners and the country's political disaster. So, on the one hand, as a wife, I want to take care of him, I want him to relax a little bit. But on the other hand, I understand that he has to jump into the agenda. He's given so many interviews now, so many people want to meet him, to see him, and we have to use that momentum. And he's still realizing what has happened in the democratic movement. But, for sure he will join this movement as a strong speaker, as a leader, just to try to mobilize the energy of Belarusians. Five years [since an anti-Lukashenko protest movement was violently quashed and Siarhei was first jailed], and people are exhausted. You know, people continue to fight. We are working on different projects in coordination with the people on the ground, but somehow people are losing, step by step, the energy. And he's a driver who can really, really attract attention. So Siarhei will focus on building new channels of communication with the workers, rural communities, entrepreneurs, officials. His voice is powerful and he speaks the language of people. Many Belarusians watched his first press conference, it gave maybe people inside the country new hope. Many people who believed in 2020, and were silent for five years, are active again. Switching gears to politics — are you worried at all that the Trump White House might be legitimizing Lukashenko by negotiating with him on the release of political prisoners? So first of all, President Trump really made a difference. His team — Gen. Keith Kellogg, John Cole, Chris Smith — took real action and it worked. Trump has shown that diplomacy and pressure can bring results. He has leverage in the situation of Belarus and he used it. Now, we must maintain pressure on the regime. We have seen that the pressure works, and it is the most effective tool. I think that actually Belarus can be President Trump's foreign policy success story — a place where American leadership ends a crisis without war. It can be a victory that the world will notice. And we ask President Trump, go further, free them all. Use your influence again. We believe that you can do this, and Belarusians will never forget it. It was American diplomacy and mission that rescued this group of people. But for sure, without the strong and principled and firm position of the European Union as well, it wouldn't have brought this result. So again, President Trump can solve the crisis in Belarus, which lasts 30 years already, and it must be easier to bring changes to Belarus than to Russia. Of course, there is gossip that this visit of Gen. Kellogg might look like legitimization of the regime, but I trust that our American partners know who they're dealing with. And it was President Trump, actually in 2020, who didn't recognize the legitimacy of Lukashenko. They understand that Lukashenko is a criminal, he committed crimes against Belarusians, he is a war criminal. And he has to be brought to accountability for all the crimes. But nevertheless, for Lukashenko this meeting is more important than it is for the Americans, because he's seeking legitimacy. He's seeking to show the world that 'Look Americans themselves listen to me, I'm important.' But Americans understand that he's playing on the side of Putin in this game, that he is not an independent player. What would you like to see President Trump do in Belarus? We understand that President Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine and this is why Belarus might be a topic for negotiation as well. For us, it's very important that the peace in Ukraine that President Trump wants to achieve must be lasting and just. It must be on the conditions of Ukraine. We can't reward the aggressor. There cannot be peace without justice, and the Belarusian topic is existential here because if Lukashenko stays in power in Belarus, there will no longer be a possibility to secure peace in the whole region. So we want President Trump to continue first of all releases, but also continue this communication through the State Department with the Belarusian Democratic Forces, and bring changes in Belarus that will actually change the security architecture of the whole region. So, continue this humanitarian track and also push Lukashenko and his regime on their path of national dialogue with Belarusians. America can play this very strong mediation role between the Belarusians and the regime. Because again, I want to underline that Lukashenko wants negotiations with the USA or with the West, possibly with the European Union, but we need systematic changes. We want Belarusian people to return to Belarus, where they will not be prosecuted. We want to write our constitution so that it works for Belarusian people. The aim is much broader than the release of political prisoners, though that is our priority. Are you worried that the Trump administration may be giving Putin and Lukashenko too much credit in its bid to end the war? Is it too transactional? Of course, you know President Trump's politics, we see it is rather transactional. But maybe it's not about credit, it's about giving a chance to Putin, maybe to Lukashenko, to change the situation that will meet the demands of Ukrainians and Belarusians. We already saw that President Trump met President Zelenskyy during the NATO Summit and it was a very pleasant conversation. And I think that there was disappointment in Trump's administration that Putin doesn't want to make any concessions. What advice do you have for the Trump administration as it embarks on negotiations and attempts to improve relationships with Minsk? We must not normalize the trafficking of political prisoners, when people are released for some concessions from your side, softening of sanctions or publicity. And then new political prisoners are taken. Lukashenko has to be punished, not rewarded. What is a realistic path forward for getting Belarus' political prisoners freed with American coordination? There's a big chance to release all people from prison. But the issue is what the regime wants in return for this. We always say that sanctions are the leverage to release people, but we have to use this leverage smartly. If we don't see any signs that repressions are stopped, this instrument cannot be used. Because 14 people have been released but [in June], 28 were detained. When we see a change of policy by Lukashenko, that he's ready to stop these repressions and make steps forward toward the Belarusian people, it might be a signal that you can talk about lifting of sanctions. But again, don't, forget that we have more leverage with European sanctions. Of course, the actions have to be coordinated. And there should be no pressure, for example, from the American side to the European side. The main message is that sanctions as instruments have to be used smartly. We can't even speak about softening sanctions now, while repressions continue and with more than 1,000 behind bars. The first condition — ending repression — must be met. And I am sure President Trump, with all his power, can achieve it. Like the release of my husband — it happened without lifting any sanctions.
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.'
Scotsman
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
The human cost of dictatorship: a happy ending but this Belarusian family's life is forever changed
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... It is believed to have been as much a surprise to his family as to the rest of the world. Last weekend, political prisoner Siarhei Tsikhanouski, along with 13 other people held captive in Belarusian jails, was suddenly released after five years, following secret negotiations by American diplomats. Video footage showed him exiting a black car straight into the arms of his wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was waiting for him in Lithuania, where she has been living in exile since 2020. He has since recounted how guards had put a black bag over his head, before putting him in a minibus with other prisoners, with no idea where he was going, or why. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Tsikhanouski was imprisoned in May 2020, two days after he announced his intention to stand in the Belarusian presidential elections against dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994. Taken under a technicality of 'organising riots' and 'inciting hatred', no one knew whether his incarceration would be short-lived, or if anyone would ever see him again. READ MORE: How an innocent trip to Belarus made me realise the fragility of press freedom He has since been held in solitary confinement for most of the past five years. His wife had not heard any news of him at all for the past two years – until this week. Forced to sleep on bare tiles on the floor of his dark, unheated cell, he had to wake up to exercise every two hours during the night to ensure his body temperature did not drop dangerously low. When he spoke at Sunday's press conference, his voice sounded strange: creaky, presumably due to lack of use, with only the cell walls to speak to for so long. He said his daughter, who was just four when he was captured, had not known who he was when she was reunited with him last Saturday evening. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I can't say I'm surprised. Half his previous weight, his head shaved and face exhausted, Mr Tsikhanouski was almost unrecognisable from the strong, smiling, affable man who became the face of opposition Belarusian politics through his popular YouTube channels. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. I interviewed Ms Tsikhanouskaya three years ago, when I was working as world editor for The Scotsman. The war in Ukraine, when Belarus became a key ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, had begun six months earlier, dashing hopes of potential political change in the former Soviet nation. On her first visit to Scotland to hold meetings with Holyrood politicians, including the then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, I had a chance to sit down with Ms Tsikhanouskaya in a cafe on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, where I tried to get to know the extraordinary woman who stepped fearlessly into her husband's place after his imprisonment. Then, she told me she was doing what she could to keep her husband's memory alive, filling their apartment with photographs of him and constantly talking to both their daughter and the couple's son, now 15, about their father. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Yet, watching the weekend's footage, I couldn't help thinking that Ms Tsikhanouskaya has changed as much as her husband in the five years he has been missing – if not more. Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya (R) and her husband Siarhei Tikhanovsky, Belarusian opposition activist released from a Belarusian prison, with a photograph on Mr Tikhanovsky before he was imprisoned. | AFP via Getty Images A former languages teacher, Ms Tsikhanouskaya had stayed at home with her children for ten years before Mr Tsikhanouski's imprisonment. Suddenly, she found herself at the head of the pro-democracy movement in Belarus, going head-to-head with Mr Lukashenko in an election which she is widely believed to have won, with 60 per cent of the vote. Mr Lukashenko, however, didn't agree and she was forced to flee the country with her family, eventually setting up an opposition government in exile in Lithuania. "I was an ordinary person who didn't care about the policy of the Belarusian government,' she told me in October 2022, as plain-clothes police officers wearing ear pieces scanned the cafe for potential threats from the next table. 'I took care of my family. I wasn't involved in politics and didn't want to be. I didn't want to understand how everything works, how our foreign policy works, who are our friends and our enemies. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Lukashenko was sure that I was doing this for fun, because who would vote for a woman? Nobody. For a housewife with no political background?' Suddenly, she found herself meeting heads of state from across the globe, holding high-level meetings about democracy and human rights. Shortly after her husband's release, she travelled to the Netherlands, to take part in a Nato summit at The Hague. The couple's reunion was not one I would expect even Mr Tsikhanouski had imagined. A couple of hours after his arrival in Lithuania, the pair were filmed hosting the other newly released prisoners at their home, with a formal press conference the next day. Of course, he knew his wife had stood in the elections and left Belarus: until two years ago, he was receiving semi-regular visits from his lawyer. However, he cannot have envisaged the scale of her current status on the world stage. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That the woman who in her own words, stayed at home to 'care for her family' until her husband's imprisonment, is now a globally recognised politician must come as a shock. She travels the globe, her social media accounts demonstrating the hard work and effort put into raising the profile of the plight of Belarus. She has had to sacrifice family time. She told me she often only sees her children for one day a week, a stark contrast to the time before her husband's imprisonment, when she admits she spent 'all [her] time' with them. It is hard not to compare the couple to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and his wife, Yulia. She has also taken on the political cause fought by her husband – against Putin. Yet the end to their story is very different: Mr Navalny died in an Arctic Circle prison over a year ago. Mr Tsikhanouskaya has said he believes he owes his life to Mr Navalny's plight. 'When Alexei Navalny died, I thought, that'll probably be me soon…' he said. 'And then something changed. It was clear that someone at the top said, 'Make sure he doesn't die here. We don't need that problem.''
Arab News
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Emaciated after 5 years in prison, Belarusian dissident Tsikhanouski vows to fight on
VILNIUS: Siarhei Tsikhanouski is almost unrecognizable. Belarus' key opposition figure, imprisoned in 2020 and unexpectedly released on Saturday, once weighed 135 kilograms (298 pounds) at 1.92 meters (nearly 6'4') tall, but now is at just 79 kilos (174 pounds). On Saturday, Tsikhnaouski was freed alongside 13 other prisoners and brought to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, where he was reunited with his wife, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children. Speaking to The Associated Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, but struggles to hold back heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars. 'This is definitely torture,' Tsikhanouski told The Associated Press in the first sit-down interview since his release. Prison officials 'kept telling me: 'You will be here not just for the 20 years we've already given you.' We will convict you again,'' he said. 'They told me that 'You would never get out.' And they kept repeating: 'You will die here.'' One of Belarus's most prominent opposition figures, Tsikhanouski said he 'almost forgot how to speak' during his years in solitary confinement. He was held in complete isolation, denied medical care, and given barely enough food. 'If you had seen me when they threw only two spoons of porridge onto my plate, two small spoons …' he said, adding that he couldn't buy anything anything in the prison kiosk. 'They would sometimes give me a little tube of toothpaste, a little piece of soap as charity. Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn't.' A prominent voice of dissent Now 46, Tsikhanouski, a popular blogger and activist, was freed just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with US President Donald Trump's envoy for Ukraine in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Keith Kellogg became the highest-ranking US official in years to visit Belarus, Moscow's close and dependent ally. Tsikhanouski, known for his anti-Lukashenko slogan 'stop the cockroach,' was arrested after announcing plans to challenge the strongman in the 2020 election and shortly before the campaign began. He was sentenced to 19 years and six months on charges widely seen as politically motivated. His wife ran in his stead, rallying crowds across the country. Official results handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office but were denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham. Lukashenko has since tightened his grip, securing a seventh term in disputed January 2025 elections. Since mid-2024, his government has pardoned nearly 300 prisoners — including US citizens — in what analysts see as an attempt to mend ties with the West. Tsikhanouski credited US President Donald Trump with aiding his release. 'I thank Donald Trump endlessly,' Tsikhanouski said. 'They (the Belarusian authorities) want Trump to at least, a little bit, somewhere, to meet them halfway. They are ready to release them all. All of them!' Many are still behind bars Tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in the aftermath of the August 2020 vote. Thousands were detained, many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures either fled the country or were imprisoned. At least 1,177 political prisoners remain in custody, according to Viasna, the oldest and most prominent human rights group in Belarus. Among them is Viasna's founder, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski. Also behind bars are 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. A surprise release and an emotional reunion Tsikhanouski called his release 'a dream that's still hard to believe.' On Saturday, he said, guards removed him from a KGB pretrial detention center, put a black bag over his head, and handcuffed him before transporting him in a minibus. He and other prisoners had no idea where they were going. 'To be honest, I still can't believe it. I was afraid I'd wake up and everything would still be the same. I don't believe it, I still don't believe it,' he said, pausing frequently and wiping away tears. Tsikhanouski's children — his daughter, aged 9, and 15-year-old son — didn't recognize him when they were reunited. 'We came in and my wife said to my daughter, 'Your dad has arrived,'' he said, crying. 'At first she couldn't understand, and then she rushed in — she was crying, I was crying ... for a very long time. My son too! These are emotions that cannot be described.' Tsikhanouski, who says his health has deteriorated behind bars, plans to undergo a medical examination in Lithuania. He says cold and hunger were 'the main causes of illness' that affected nearly all political prisoners in Belarus, who were subjected to 'especially harsh conditions.' 'There were skin diseases, and everyone had kidney problems from the cold — and no one really understood what was happening,' Tsikhanouski said. 'Blood came out of my mouth, from my nose. Sometimes I had convulsions — but it was all because of the cold, that terrible cold when you sit in those punishment cells.' 'There is no medical care in prison — none at all, just so you know …' he said. Tsikhanouski said conditions slightly improved after the February 2024 death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prison colony. 'When Alexei Navalny died, I thought, that'll probably be me soon … And then something changed. It was clear that someone at the top said, 'Make sure he doesn't die here. We don't need that problem.' It got just a bit softer ... At some point, word came down: Tsikhanouski must be kept alive, not killed.' Pointing the finger at Putin Tsikhanouski blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for propping up Lukashenko, both during the 2020 protests and to this day. Russia supports Belarus's economy with loans and subsidized oil and gas. In return, Belarus has allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch troops and weapons into Ukraine, and hosts Russian forces and nuclear weapons. Tsikhanouski expressed strong support for Ukraine, calling the Kremlin a common evil for both countries. 'If it weren't for Putin, we would already be living in a different country. Putin recognized Lukashenko's victory in the election, he called black white. That is, he refused to see the falsifications,' Tsikhanouski said. 'They help each other. Because of Putin, this illegal government is still in Belarus.' Some analysts have speculated that by releasing the charismatic and energetic Tsikhanouski, Belarusian authorities may be trying to sow division within the opposition. But Tsikhanouski insists he has no intention of challenging his wife's role as the internationally recognized head of the Belarusian opposition, and he calls for unity. 'Under no circumstances do I plan to criticize any Belarusians, condemn or complain about anyone,' he said. Tsikhanouski says he will not stop fighting and wants to return to active work as both a political figure and a blogger. But he is skeptical that Lukashenko, now 70, will step down voluntarily, despite his age. 'I don't know anymore — will he go or won't he?' Tsikhanouski said. 'Many people say nothing will change until he dies. But I'm still counting on democratic forces winning.'
Washington Post
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Emaciated after 5 years in prison, Belarusian dissident Tsikhanouski vows to fight on
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Siarhei Tsikhanouski is almost unrecognizable. Belarus' key opposition figure, imprisoned in 2020 and unexpectedly released on Saturday, once weighed 135 kilograms (298 pounds) at 1.92 meters (nearly 6'4') tall, but now is at just 79 kilos (174 pounds). On Saturday, Tsikhnaouski was freed alongside 13 other prisoners and brought to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, where he was reunited with his wife, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children. Speaking to The Associated Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, but struggles to hold back heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars.
