Belarusian opposition activist Sergey Tikhanovsky (Siarhei Tsikhanovsky) was released from prison on 21 June 2025 following a pardon mediated by U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg, who recently met with President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk.

“I can't believe it. Siarhei is here—with me and our children. What we’ve dreamed of for 5 years has finally happened,” his wife Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Sviatlana Tsikhanovskaya) said in a post on social media. “Tonight, I’m taking the evening off to talk with my husband, to let him see his children again, after so many years. Thank you all for the tremendous support!”

Tikhanovsky was held in several high-security detention centres in Belarus during his imprisonment, including the notorious Okrestina Detention Centre in Minsk that still holds numerous opposition activists arrested during protests. Tikhanovsky, 46, had been imprisoned for more than five years.

The announcement of the releases came just hours after Lukashenko met US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Minsk, the highest profile visit of a US official to the authoritarian state in years.

Tikhanovsky immediately travelled to Lithuania where he was delivered from the airport to emerged from a white mini bus throw himself into the arms of his waiting wife. (video)

Belarus has faced international condemnation since the 2020 mass demonstrations following the blatant falsification of the presidential election that returned Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to his seventh term of office. The election was widely viewed as fraudulent and sparked mass protests across the country.

Lukashenko responded with a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing opposition figures, activists, and journalists. Among those detained was Tikhanovsky, a popular blogger and activist who had planned to challenge Lukashenko at the ballot box before being arrested in May 2020 ahead of the elections.

Tikhanovsky, who was serving an 18-year sentence after his 2020 arrest for political dissent, arrived in Lithuania on Saturday June 21 along with 13 other released political prisoners.

After her husband was jailed, his wife Tikhanovskaya ran in his stead. Initially, Lukashenko dismissed her challenge as that of a “mere housewife” but as the large crowds rallied to her banner, he became increasingly embattled.

While the Central Election Committee (CEC) immediately burnt all the ballots after declaring Lukashenko the winner, the few rebel polling station that release the real result of the election suggest that Tikhanovskaya won the election in a landslide.

However, after the poll she went to a meeting at the CEC a few days later to lodge a formal complaint and demand a recount where she was confronted by Belarus’ KGB agents. Tikhanovskaya was forced into making a statement calling on Belarusians to accept the official results making Lukashenko the victor and called for an end to the protests. But then she immediately fled into exile with her two small children in Lithuania, where she resumed her campaign to oust Lukashenko, appealing to the international community for help.

“My husband Siarhei is free! It’s hard to describe the joy in my heart,” Tikhanovskaya wrote. “We’re not done. 1,150 political prisoners remain behind bars. All must be released.”

While the release marks a rare concession from the Belarusian government, the broader political crackdown remains in place. Rights groups continue to call for the release of all remaining political detainees.

Other prominent opposition leaders remain in jail

Other opposition leaders included in the release were Natalia Dulina, a former university professor, and Ihar Kamel, a journalist working for RFE/RL. Swedish-Belarusian citizen Galina Krasnyanskaya, arrested in 2023 for allegedly supporting Ukraine, was also freed, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said.

The other released prisoners include five Belarusian nationals and Japanese, Polish and Swedish citizens, according to Tikhanovskaya's office.

Tikhankovsky’s release was welcomed with applause from the international community. European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed Tikhanovsky's release and called for Belarus to free its other political prisoners. "This is fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenko regime," she said on X.

However, the other top opposition leaders jailed both before the 2020 elections and during the protests afterward remain in jail.

Most prominent of those still in jail is former banker Viktor Babariko who also was intending to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 election and was on course to easily win the race until he was also arrested ahead of the poll.

Maria Kolesnikova also remains in jail, her sister confirmed. Formerly the campaign manager for Babariko, she joined forces with Tikhanovskaya, after his arrest and became a leading figure in the protest movement together with Veronika Tsepkalo, who also fled into exile. She was an easily identifiable figure at the street protests with her short cropped platinum blonde hair and trademark bright red lipstick.

While Tikhanovskaya fled into exile after she was threatened by the KGB, Kolesnikova chose to remain in Minsk and continue protesting in public against the Lukashenko regime until she was eventually snatched by security services from the street and jailed. She disappeared for almost two weeks before finally surfacing in a Belarusian prison and later charged with organising a coup d'état.

The authorities tried to forcibly expel her from the country in September, but failed after she ripped up her passport on the Ukrainian border, making it impossible for her to leave the country. After disappearing again she eventually resurfaced in another Minsk jail but has rarely been seen in public since.

Babariko has also not been seen for over two years, until he released a short video message to his daughter in January, published online by Roman Protasevich, another Belarusian opposition journalist that was snatched by the authorities after it forced a commercial Ryanair flight to land in Minsk on its way to Vilnius. Babariko has been held incommunicado since April 2022, with no access to visits, phone calls, or letters, according to human rights group Viasna.