Belarus frees political prisoners in exchange for reducing US sanctions

Dozens of political prisoners of Belarusian prisons were released as part of a deal between the authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko and US President Donald Trump.

Fifty two prisoners were released, including union leaders, journalists and activists, but more than 1,000 political prisoners are still in prison.

On the other hand, the United States said it would reduce some sanctions against berusian Airline Belavia, allowing it to buy spare parts for airlines.

The release of prisoners came on the eve of joint military exercises that include Belarus and a close ally, and after what the neighboring Poland described it as an unprecedented incursion into the field of drones in the airspace.

Poland closes its borders with Belarus due to the Zapad-2025 training, which will continue until Tuesday. Latvia closes part of the airspace.

The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the leadership of Poland from the “steps of confrontation” in closing the border. Meanwhile, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, Kaja Calas, warned that “Putin mocks efforts” from the West to deal with him.

Alexander Lukashenko, 71, and led Belarus since 1994, has described the cancellation of all opposition, by release the prisoners as a humanitarian gesture, after meeting Trump’s special envoy John Kawali in the capital Minsk on Thursday.

The two men discussed how they could re -establish a commercial relationship, including the reopening of the American embassy in Minsk.

The United States closed its embassy in the capital in February 2022 after Russia Vladimir Putin used the Belarusian lands to launch its extensive numbers to Ukraine.

Reuters news agency told him that he had not yet had an appointment to reopen the embassy, ​​but would happen “in the very near future.”

Belarus is eager to build an economic relationship with the United States after it was disgusting with Western sanctions due to the relationship with the Russian war in Ukraine.

US officials say that some sanctions on Pelvia National Aviation have been raised in exchange for prisoners’ publications.

The airline was approved after it ordered the Belarusian flights to the Ryanier plane traveling from Greece to Lithuania to land in Minsk in 2021, then the police arrested the journalist Roman Protassific.

Many political prisoners in Belarus were in prison since Lukashenko brutally sealed protests in Belarus in 2020, after winning a widespread victory in the presidential elections as counterfeit.

“The Americans are taking a very constructive position on the so -called political prisoners. We do not need political prisoners or any other prisoners.”

The 52 prisoners joined on Thursday to 314 others who were released since July 2023 in an attempt to alleviate the relationship of Belarus with the European Union and the United States, according to Human Rights Watch.

14 other prisoners were pardoned and released in June A special envoy to the United StatesIncluding Sergey Tikhanovsky, the husband of the opposition leader of Belarus, the exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Thirteen others were released and forced to exile.

Tikhanovskaya met some prisoners who were released while crossing the border to the neighboring Lithuania, where President Gitanas Nazida thanked President Trump for his efforts to liberate them. He said that they left behind “barbed wires, banned windows and constant fear.”

Of 52 edited, the 69 -year -old philosopher Vladimir Matsivic, journalist Igor Lucik, and the Supreme opposition figure Mikola Statvic, who was a candidate for the presidency in 2010.

His colleague in charge of opposition Olga Zazolinskaya wrote on social media that their release was good news for their families and friends, but they indicated that they were getting their freedom in exchange for exile, instead of returning home.

With her first words to reporters after her release, former journalist Larissa Sherrakova said that she had actually served in prison for three years – “Now they expelled me.”

Mikola Stattivic, the veteran division, refused to cross opposition to Lithuania and the opposition of the Munafi Belarus, pictures of him sitting in the land of any man on the border. Tijhanovskaya said that he returned to Belarus and said, “Every Belarus has the right to live without suppression and terrorism in their country.”

The Human Rights Group Viasna said that the UK Citizen Paileria, Julia Winner, was also among 52 years. A British diplomatic wife, who was arrested on the border when she entered Belarus last year and received a long sentence in prison last week. BBC asked the UK Foreign Ministry to confirm.

President Trump indicated last month that he was talking to Lukashenko about the release of possible prisoners, while he was also looking for improved relationships with Vladimir Putin.

Although Putin’s summit with Putin has not met any clear success, it seems that Trump had a deal with Lukashenko, who spent decades isolated from his European neighbors because of his authoritarian rule.