Belarus opposition figure Sergei Tikhanovsky, who was released following an appeal from the White House, said on Sunday, June 22nd, that U.S. President Donald Trump could secure the freedom of all Belarusian political prisoners.
Tikhanovsky spoke to reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius a day after he was released from several years of prison with more than a dozen others. He said he hoped to return to Belarus, “but when, I don’t know yet.”
Tikhanovsky was joined at the news conference by his wife Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who took the mantle of the opposition movement after he was jailed.
The prisoner release on Saturday came just hours after U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile U.S. visit in years.
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.
Tikhanovskaya—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.
The eastern European country still holds more than 1,000 political prisoners in its jails, according to Belarusian human rights group Viasna.
Belarus, ruled by Lukashenko since 1994, has outlawed all genuine opposition parties.
