Syarhei Tsikhanouski, a Belarusian opposition activist launched from a jail by Belarusian authorities, speaks throughout an interview with the Related Press in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, June 22, 2025.
Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
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Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Siarhei Tsikhanouski is nearly unrecognizable. Belarus’ key opposition determine, imprisoned in 2020 and unexpectedly launched on Saturday, as soon as weighed 135 kilograms (298 kilos) at 1.92 meters (practically 6’4″) tall, however now’s at simply 79 kilos (174 kilos).
On Saturday, Tsikhnaouski was freed alongside 13 different prisoners and delivered to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, the place he was reunited along with his spouse, exiled Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their youngsters. Chatting with The Related Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, however struggles to carry again heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars.
“That is undoubtedly torture,” Tsikhanouski informed The Related Press within the first sit-down interview since his launch. Jail officers “stored telling me: ‘You’ll be right here not only for the 20 years we have already given you.’ We are going to convict you once more,'” he mentioned. “They informed me that ‘You’d by no means get out.’ And so they stored repeating: ‘You’ll die right here.'”
One among Belarus’s most outstanding opposition figures, Tsikhanouski mentioned he “nearly forgot converse” throughout his years in solitary confinement. He was held in full isolation, denied medical care, and given barely sufficient meals.
“In case you had seen me once they threw solely two spoons of porridge onto my plate, two small spoons …” he mentioned, including that he could not purchase something something within the jail kiosk. “They might typically give me a bit of tube of toothpaste, a bit of piece of cleaning soap as charity. Generally they’d, typically they would not.”
A outstanding voice of dissent
Now 46, Tsikhanouski, a preferred blogger and activist, was freed simply hours after Belarusian authorities introduced that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine within the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Keith Kellogg grew to become the highest-ranking U.S. official in years to go to Belarus, Moscow’s shut and dependent ally.
Tsikhanouski, identified for his anti-Lukashenko slogan “cease the cockroach,” was arrested after saying plans to problem the strongman within the 2020 election and shortly earlier than the marketing campaign started. He was sentenced to 19 years and 6 months on prices broadly seen as politically motivated. His spouse ran in his stead, rallying crowds throughout the nation. Official outcomes handed Lukashenko his sixth time period in workplace however had been denounced by the opposition and the West as a sham.
Lukashenko has since tightened his grip, securing a seventh time period in disputed January 2025 elections. Since mid-2024, his authorities has pardoned practically 300 prisoners — together with U.S. residents — in what analysts see as an try to fix ties with the West.
Tsikhanouski credited U.S. President Donald Trump with aiding his launch.
“I thank Donald Trump endlessly,” Tsikhanouski mentioned. “They (the Belarusian authorities) need Trump to not less than, a bit of bit, someplace, to fulfill them midway. They’re able to launch all of them. All of them!”
Many are nonetheless behind bars
Tens of hundreds of individuals poured into the streets within the aftermath of the August 2020 vote. 1000’s had been detained, many crushed by police. Outstanding opposition figures both fled the nation or had been imprisoned.
At the least 1,177 political prisoners stay in custody, in line with Viasna, the oldest and most outstanding human rights group in Belarus. Amongst them is Viasna’s founder, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ales Bialiatski.
Additionally behind bars are Viktor Babaryka, a former banker who was broadly seen in 2020 as Lukashenko’s major elecoral rival, and Maria Kolesnikova, an in depth ally of Tsikhanouskaya and charismatic chief of that 12 months’s mass protests.
A shock launch and an emotional reunion
Tsikhanouski referred to as his launch “a dream that is nonetheless laborious to consider.” On Saturday, he mentioned, guards eliminated him from a KGB pretrial detention middle, put a black bag over his head, and handcuffed him earlier than transporting him in a minibus. He and different prisoners had no thought the place they had been going.
“To be trustworthy, I nonetheless cannot consider it. I used to be afraid I would get up and all the pieces would nonetheless be the identical. I do not consider it, I nonetheless do not consider it,” he mentioned, pausing steadily and wiping away tears.
Tsikhanouski’s youngsters — his daughter, aged 9, and 15-year-old son — did not acknowledge him once they had been reunited.
Syarhei Tsikhanouski, left, Belarusian opposition activist launched from a Belarusian jail, embraces his spouse, Belarusian opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, after a information convention in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, June 22, 2025.
Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
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Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
“We got here in and my spouse mentioned to my daughter, ‘Your dad has arrived,'” he mentioned, crying. “At first she could not perceive, after which she rushed in — she was crying, I used to be crying … for a really very long time. My son too! These are feelings that can not be described.”
Tsikhanouski, who says his well being has deteriorated behind bars, plans to endure a medical examination in Lithuania. He says chilly and starvation had been “the principle causes of sickness” that affected practically all political prisoners in Belarus, who had been subjected to “particularly harsh situations.”
“There have been pores and skin ailments, and everybody had kidney issues from the chilly — and nobody actually understood what was occurring,” Tsikhanouski mentioned. “Blood got here out of my mouth, from my nostril. Generally I had convulsions — however it was all due to the chilly, that horrible chilly whenever you sit in these punishment cells.”
“There isn’t a medical care in jail — none in any respect, simply so you recognize …” he mentioned.
Tsikhanouski mentioned situations barely improved after the February 2024 dying of Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny in a jail colony.
“When Alexei Navalny died, I assumed, that’ll most likely be me quickly … After which one thing modified. It was clear that somebody on the prime mentioned, ‘Make sure that he does not die right here. We do not want that downside.’ It obtained only a bit softer … Sooner or later, phrase got here down: Tsikhanouski should be stored alive, not killed.”
Pointing the finger at Putin
Tsikhanouski blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for propping up Lukashenko, each through the 2020 protests and to today.
Russia helps Belarus’s financial system with loans and sponsored oil and gasoline. In return, Belarus has allowed Moscow to make use of its territory to launch troops and weapons into Ukraine, and hosts Russian forces and nuclear weapons.
Tsikhanouski expressed sturdy help for Ukraine, calling the Kremlin a standard evil for each international locations.
“If it weren’t for Putin, we’d already be dwelling in a special nation. Putin acknowledged Lukashenko’s victory within the election, he referred to as black white. That’s, he refused to see the falsifications,” Tsikhanouski mentioned. “They assist one another. Due to Putin, this unlawful authorities continues to be in Belarus.”
Some analysts have speculated that by releasing the charismatic and energetic Tsikhanouski, Belarusian authorities could also be attempting to sow division inside the opposition. However Tsikhanouski insists he has no intention of difficult his spouse’s function because the internationally acknowledged head of the Belarusian opposition, and he requires unity.
“By no means do I plan to criticize any Belarusians, condemn or complain about anybody,” he mentioned.
Tsikhanouski says he won’t cease preventing and needs to return to lively work as each a political determine and a blogger. However he’s skeptical that Lukashenko, now 70, will step down voluntarily, regardless of his age.
“I do not know anymore — will he go or will not he?” Tsikhanouski mentioned. “Many individuals say nothing will change till he dies. However I am nonetheless relying on democratic forces profitable.”
