Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday released 123 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and prominent opposition figure Maria Kolesnikava, after days of talks with an envoy from President Donald Trump, according to a US statement.
In exchange, the United States agreed to lift sanctions against the Belarusian power. Potash is a key fertilizer component and the former Soviet state is one of the world’s leading producers. The release is by far Lukashenko’s largest since the Trump administration began talks this year with the veteran authoritarian leader, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, is a human rights activist who worked for years on behalf of political prisoners before becoming one himself. He had been in prison since July 2021. Also released were Kolesnikava, leader of mass protests against Lukashenko in 2020, and Viktar Babarika, arrested this year while preparing to run in elections against the president.
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