Belarus unexpectedly released the imprisoned husband of opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya last month, but she continues to call on U.S. President Donald Trump to keep up pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko.
“Don’t normalize the situation where people are released for some concessions from your side, softening of sanctions or publicity,” she said in an interview with POLITICO. “Lukashenko has to be punished, not rewarded.”
Some international advocates worry that after the Belarusian president released her husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, following a visit to Minsk by U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg, the Trump administration will loosen the screws on Lukashenko.
The release took place on the third Saturday in June; it was the first time Tsikhanouskaya had heard her husband’s voice in more than two years.
Tsikhanouski, a one-time presidential challenger and blogger jailed for the past five years by Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime, had been freed from prison in a deal brokered by Kellogg. He called Tsikhanouskaya from the border between Belarus and Lithuania.
“My dear wife, I’m free,” he said on the phone.
Tsikhanouski had been the leading opposition challenger to Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election when he was arrested and sentenced to prison for 18 years for —according to the regime — inciting hatred and social unrest. Tsikhanouskaya subsequently ran in his place, reportedly drawing millions of votes. But she was forced into exile in Lithuania as Lukashenko violently quelled the mass protests that followed his disputed election victory.
Tsikhanouski was held incommunicado as of early 2023, unable to exchange messages with the outside world. Tsikhanouskaya’s team wasn’t even sure he was alive.
“I could hardly believe this,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “Because all these years, I was sure that he would be one of the last who would be released from prison. But who understands the logic of this regime?”
When they finally met at the American embassy in Vilnius, Tsikhanouskaya was shocked by her husband’s appearance. Siarhei had lost half his body weight. He told friends he’d forgotten how to speak in prison. Their daughter initially didn’t recognize him.
“When he started talking, she just recognized his voice only,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “Of course, there was an ocean of tears, hugs. But prison changes people a lot. It’s like gray face, very skinny people.”
Tsikhanouskaya still isn’t sure why the regime freed her husband. But Lukashenko has made a practice of releasing prisoners in exchange for international credibility. Relations with the former Biden administration were especially frosty; now, senior White House officials have traveled to Minsk to meet the Belarusian leader.
As the White House ramps up its presence in Belarus, she wants to ensure the Trump administration is prepared to reject Lukashenko’s efforts to establish legitimacy.
Tsikhanouskaya is appealing to Trump’s legacy: Belarus could be “President Trump’s foreign policy success story” if he and America’s allies ensure the country is not handed to Russia as a consolation prize in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, she said.
“I trust that American partners … know who they’re dealing with,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
Peace talks have been anything but smooth. Trump, who during his campaign promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, has seen progress stymied in part due to the reluctance of Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop fighting. In April he mused on social media that maybe Putin was “tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently.”
Trump said on Thursday following a phone call with Putin that “I didn’t make any progress with him at all.” Hours later, Russia launched the largest attack of the war against Kyiv.
Still, the White House is declining European requests to ratchet up sanctions on Russia, wary of telegraphing that a ceasefire is not imminent. And Trump spent the first several months of his second term pressuring Ukraine — not Russia — to make concessions.
The U.S. president, Tsikhanouskaya said, can “change the whole security architecture of the region” if he and his allies leverage power and sanctions to free more prisoners and insist on systemic changes in the Belarusian government.
“You can’t reward the aggressor, there cannot be peace without justice,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “And the Belarusian topic is existential here. Because if Lukashenko continues to seize power and stays in power in Belarus, there will not be a possibility to secure peace in the whole region.”
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