On June 21, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, an authoritarian who has ruled the nation since 1994, freed 14 political prisoners, including the husband of exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

This happened hours after Lukashenko received U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg in the capital of Minsk. The release of Siarhei Tsikhanouski — known as “Minsk’s number one political prisoner,” who had received the regime’s harshest verdict of 18 years — underscores the high-profile nature of the gesture.

Kellogg’s visit was not his first. On Feb. 12, soon after his initial trip to Belarus, the authorities pardoned three political prisoners, including an American citizen. The June amnesty therefore builds on a pattern linking each wave of releases to Kellogg-brokered diplomacy.

The end of the isolation of the Lukashenko regime, however, does not necessarily mean abandonment of Belarusian opposition.

Every year since she emerged in 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has used major international platforms — from long-form journalism and television interviews to speeches at parliaments, security conferences and her own social channels — to repeat the same demand:

© The Hill