The first consequence of the meeting between US President Donald Trump's special representative, retired general and now diplomat Keith Kellogg, and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was the release of Serhiy Tikhanovsky, an opposition politician arrested during the 2020 election campaign while still collecting signatures to register as a presidential candidate.
Points of attention
- The meeting between US President's special representative and Lukashenko led to the release of 14 political prisoners, including Serhiy Tikhanovsky.
- Lithuanian cooperation and US assistance were key factors in securing the release of the political prisoners from Belarus.
- The released political prisoners, including Tikhanovsky, were taken to Lithuania after their release.
Lukashenko released 14 political prisoners
In total, Lukashenko released 14 political prisoners on June 21.
This was announced by his wife, a representative of the Belarusian opposition abroad, Svitlana Tikhanovskaya. She posted a touching video of a meeting with her husband in Vilnius (Belarus) on her official TG channel.
Free! — Tikhanovskaya captioned this video.
The video shows Serhiy, who has lost a lot of weight during his imprisonment, getting out of the minibus to meet his wife, to the applause of those present, and Svitlana hugging him.
The total recording time is only 7 seconds.
As Belarusian emigrants point out in their comments, this procedure for releasing political prisoners was apparently prepared in advance.
According to the Viasna Human Rights Center, in addition to Tsikhanouski, Natalia Dulina, Ihor Losik, Ihor Karney, Halyna Krasnyanska, Akihira Gaevsky-Khanada, and Kyrylo Balakhonav were released.
This was made possible thanks to the visit to Minsk of US President Donald Trump's special representative, Keith Kellogg.
"President Trump's strong leadership led to the release of 14 prisoners from Belarus today. We thank the government of Lithuania for their cooperation and assistance—they remain true friends and allies," said John Cole, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the Kellogg Center.
According to Viasna, the released political prisoners were taken to Lithuania.
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