Belarus frees jailed opposition leader after appeal from US

MINSK

Belarus freed top opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky and more than a dozen other political prisoners on June 21 following an appeal from the White House, Minsk said, a sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus-ally Moscow.

The release came just hours after U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile visit of a U.S. 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 U.S. President Donald Trump directly for brokering the deal.

European politicians and members of Belarus's exiled opposition also welcomed the news.

"This is fantastic news and a powerful symbol of hope for all the political prisoners suffering under the brutal Lukashenka regime," European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said on X.

"Europe continues to call for their immediate release," she added.

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 her husband's arrest, ran against Lukashenko in his place but lost after what the opposition described as widespread falsification. She later fled Belarus.