Warsaw, Poland - Belarus freed top opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky and over a dozen other political prisoners Saturday following an appeal from the White House, Minsk said, a sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus-ally Moscow.
This handout photograph – which was made from a video published in the official Telegram channel of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on Saturday – shows exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya hugging her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky in an unnamed place in Lithuania. © Handout / AFP
The release came just hours after US special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile visit of a US official to the authoritarian state in years.
Tikhanovsky's wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who took the mantle of the opposition movement after her husband's jailing, thanked US President Donald Trump directly for brokering the deal.
European politicians and members of Belarus's exiled opposition also welcomed the news.
The European Union hailed Tikhanovsky's release as a "symbol of hope," and a leading activist called it an "important moment."
Tikhanovsky (46) had been imprisoned for more than five years.
The popular YouTuber had planned to run against Lukashenko in the August 2020 presidential election, but was arrested and detained weeks before the vote.
He was sentenced in 2021 to 18 years in prison for "organizing riots" and "inciting hatred," then to another 18 months for "insubordination."
Svetlana – a political novice at the time of his arrest – ran against Lukashenko in her husband's place but lost after what the opposition described as widespread falsification. She later fled Belarus.
"It's hard to describe the joy in my heart," she said in a post on X following her husband's release.
Among the 13 others freed were Radio Liberty journalist Igor Karnei, arrested in 2023 and jailed for participating in an "extremist" organization.
They have now been transferred from Belarus to Lithuania, where they were receiving "proper care," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said.
