Overview

• Belarus pardoned 14 opposition figures, including Siarhey Tsikhanouski, after he had served nearly five years of an 18-year sentence for his thwarted 2020 presidential bid.
• The decision followed a meeting in Minsk between Lukashenko and US special envoy Keith Kellogg, marking the highest-level contact between Washington and Minsk since 2020.
• Tsikhanouski flew to Lithuania after his release where his wife, exiled opposition leader Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya, greeted him and expressed gratitude to US officials, European allies and Lithuania’s government.
• Despite the release, more than 1,000 political prisoners, including prominent dissidents like Maria Kolesnikova and Víktor Babariko, remain in Belarusian jails.
• Rights groups including Viasna, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long classified Tsikhanouski as a prisoner of conscience and urged broader political reforms.