Negotiations are underway with Poland and Lithuania over the safe return of political prisoners following Belarus’s release of 123 detainees on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters outside the US embassy in Vilnius, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said discussions were continuing over how the former prisoners would be transported.
“We are now coordinating the logistics of bringing people to Poland or Lithuania,” she said. “We do not yet know the details, as we are negotiating with the Polish and Lithuanian sides on how to organise safe transport and cover the necessary infrastructure costs.”
Tsikhanouskaya said those released included opposition figure Maksim Znak and writer and social activist Pavel Seviarynets.
Those freed also included former presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka, opposition politician Maria Kalesnikava and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski.
“Of course, there are still hundreds of people behind bars, and we must work to free them all, but this is a negotiation process,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
It also emerged on Saturday that the United States intends to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash exports.
Tsikhanouskaya said it was important for Belarus’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, to maintain dialogue with Washington, adding that it was understandable that “a certain price” would be paid for the release of political prisoners.
“Sanctions are a tool – a lever – to force a dictator to act,” she said. “Lukashenko is not releasing people out of humanity. He wants to extract the highest possible price. It has already been announced that sanctions on potash fertilisers may be lifted. That is the price.”
She added that US sanctions were flexible and could be reimposed if agreements were not honoured.
“The American sanctions were introduced mainly because of human rights violations, so they can be used to free people,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “European sanctions, however, should be reserved for bigger issues and irreversible changes in Belarus.”
Belarus released 123 political prisoners on Saturday, according to BNS. Nine were transferred via Lithuania, with the remainder released through Ukraine.
Following talks between the United States and Belarus, more than 60 prisoners were freed in June and September, including six Lithuanian nationals.
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