In another sanctions-relief-for-prisoners deal, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko released another 123 political prisoners, including three of the most famous, following talks with the US Special envoy to Belarus.

Amongst those freed were 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and high-profile opposition leaders Maria Kolesnikova, who campaigned with Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya) in the 2020 presidential elections. Viktor Babariko was also released, who was the front runner in the 2020 presidential elections until he was arrested. In exchange the US agreed to lift some sanctions on Belarus’ biggest money-maker, potash exports.

Kolesnikova’s sister, Tatiana Khomich, told AFP that she appeared “normal,” despite fears about her health after years in detention. Bialiatski’s wife, Natalia Pinchuk, said: “The first words I said to him were that I love him.”

Maria Kolesnikova was one of the high profile political prisoners released in US brokered deal, here making her trademark heart sign on a bus with the other freed prisoners.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya) expressed gratitude to US President Donald Trump and said the fact that Lukashenko had agreed to release prisoners in return for the concessions on potash was proof of the effectiveness of sanctions.

“US sanctions are about people. EU sanctions are about systemic change — stopping the war, enabling democratic transition, and ensuring accountability. These approaches do not contradict each other; they complement each other,” Tikhanovskaya said in a statement.

Among the other released prisoners were also several foreigners, including an American and five Ukrainians, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The deal is the latest in a series of prisoner releases brokered by the US that has already seen Lukashenko and 14 political prisoners in June, including Tikhanovskaya’s husband Sergei, who spent five years in prison after he was arrested in the run up to the disputed August 2020 presidential elections, and another 52 political prisoners on September 11. Human rights groups say at least 1,200 political prisoners remain in jail, but Lukashenko hinted that he was willing to release them all, provided the US was willing to remove the sanctions regime on Belarus. At least seven political prisoners have died while in jail.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has expressed its “profound relief and heartfelt joy” after Bialiatski’s release and called on Belarus to release all political prisoners.

The exchange was agreed following two days of negotiations with a US Special Envoy John Coale in Minsk, who has taken over from special envoy to Ukraine retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg. The Belarusian diplomatic outreach by the US is seen in Washington as part of a broader strategy to gradually wean Minsk from Moscow's orbit.

Lifting sanctions on the naturally occurring fertiliser potash that Belarus produces is a major win for Lukashenko as exports earn Minsk hundreds of millions of dollars a year. In the previous release of 52 prisoners, the White House agreed to lift sanctions on the national airline Belavia, allowing US companies to supply it with parts again to maintain the fleet.

The latest release was announced on December 13 by the human rights group Viasna, which was founded by Bialiatski, said it marks the most significant prisoner release by the Belarusian authorities in years.

“Ales Bialiatski is free!” Viasna wrote on social media, confirming the release of its long-time founder, who had been serving a ten-year sentence and spent 1,613 days in prison.

Speaking after his arrival at the US embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, Bialiatski said: “I felt like I jumped from ice water into a normal, warm room, so I have to adjust. After the isolation, I need to get some information about what’s going on.” He added that “more than 1,000” political prisoners remain incarcerated in Belarus.

As significant as Bialiatski was the release of Maria Kolesnikova, who, along with Tikhanovskaya, was one of the most prominent members of the opposition during the massively fixed 2020 presidential elections and mass protests that followed.

“Of course, it’s a feeling of incredible happiness first of all: to see with your eyes the people who are dear to you, to hug them, and understand that now we are all free people. It’s a great joy to see my first free sunset,” she said in a video published by the Ukrainian Telegram channel Khochu Zhit.

 

Easily identifiable in the crowds by her peroxide blond hair and bright red lipstick, after Tikhanovskaya fled into exile shortly after the elections in Lithuania, she remained in Minsk and continued to participate in the demonstrations.

Eventually she was snatched from the street by the Belarusian KGB and disappeared in September 2020 a month after the elections. She reappeared in a remand prison a few days later. However, when the KGB attempted to eject her from the country, she famously ripped up her passport making it impossible to cross the border into Ukraine. She was subsequently convicted of organizing a coup d'état and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Kolesnikova was one of the three women – including Tikhanovskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of another opposition leader -- that became the icon of the opposition to Lukashenko and raised the profile of the protests on the international stage. Tsepkalo, who like Tikhanovskaya has small children, also fled into exile after the demonstrations began.

Kolesnikova started her political opposition to Lukashenko as the campaign manager of former banker Viktor Babariko, who was the leading opposition candidate at the start of the race and expected to beat Lukashenko in the presidential race. He was jailed before the vote and subsequently convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 14 years in jail.

Babariko was also released on December 13 but his son Edward remains in jail.

She has now been transferred to Ukraine along with over 100 other former detainees. Coale, who led the talks with Lukashenko, described the negotiations as “very productive,” according to the Belta state news agency.

Coale confirmed the lifting of sanctions on Belarusian potash exports. “We are lifting sanctions and releasing prisoners. We are constantly talking,” Coale said, adding that relations were moving “from tentative steps to more confident steps.”

As part of a broader shift in US policy under Trump, who has talked to Lukashenko several times by phone and called him a “great leader,” is seen as an attempt to do a “reverse Nixon.” Washington hopes to peel Lukashenko away from his support of Putin’s Russia. The Kremlin launched part of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 from Belarus, threatening to capture Kyiv in the first weeks of the war.

Coale said Lukashenko’s “good relationship with Putin could be very helpful” in ongoing US mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine.

Belarus has been under international sanctions since the violent crackdown on protests after the 2020 election. Thousands of activists, journalists, and demonstrators were detained, and human rights groups have labelled the country one of the most repressive in Europe.

Protestors in Minsk drew inspiration from Maria Kolesnikova, who continued to participate in rallies after her campaign colleagues fled the country with their small children, fearing arrest.

L-R: Veronika Tsepkalo, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Maria Kolesnikova lead the opposition to Lukashenko in the August 2020 elections.

Victor Babariko was the front runner, widely expected to defeat Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential elections until he was arrested on politically motivated charges before the vote. Maria Kolesnikova was his campaign manager.