Emaciated after 5 years in jail, Belarusian dissident Tsikhanouski vows to combat on

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Siarhei Tsikhanouski is sort of 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, but now is at just 79 kilos (174 pounds).

On Saturday, Tsikhnaouski was freed alongside 13 other prisoners and brought to Vilnius, the capital of neighboring Lithuania, where he was reunited with his wife, exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and their children. Speaking to The Associated Press the day after, Tsikhanouski tries to smile and joke, but struggles to hold back heavy sighs recalling what he endured behind bars.

“That is undoubtedly torture,” Tsikhanouski told The Associated Press in the first sit-down interview since his release. Prison officials “saved telling me: ‘You’ll be right here not only for the 20 years we have already given you.’ We’ll convict you once more,'” he said. “They advised me that ‘You’d by no means get out.’ They usually saved repeating: ‘You’ll die right here.'”

Certainly one of Belarus’s most outstanding opposition figures, Tsikhanouski stated he “almost forgot how to speak” throughout his years in solitary confinement. He was held in full isolation, denied medical care, and given barely sufficient meals.

“If you had seen me when they threw only two spoons of porridge onto my plate, two small spoons …” he stated, including that he could not purchase something something within the jail kiosk. “They would sometimes give me a little tube of toothpaste, a little piece of soap as charity. Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn’t.”

A outstanding voice of dissent

Now 46, Tsikhanouski, a well-liked 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, recognized for his anti-Lukashenko slogan “stop the cockroach,” was arrested after asserting 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 extensively 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 have 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 stated. “They (the Belarusian authorities) want Trump to at least, a little bit, somewhere, to meet them halfway. They are ready to release them all. 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. Hundreds have been detained, many overwhelmed by police. Distinguished opposition figures both fled the nation or have been imprisoned.

At the least 1,177 political prisoners stay in custody, in accordance 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 extensively seen in 2020 as Lukashenko’s most important 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’s still hard to believe.” On Saturday, he stated, 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 concept the place they have been going.

“To be honest, I still can’t believe it. I was afraid I’d wake up and everything would still be the same. I don’t believe it, I still don’t believe it,” he stated, pausing continuously and wiping away tears.

Tsikhanouski’s kids — his daughter, aged 9, and 15-year-old son — did not acknowledge him after they have been reunited.

“We came in and my wife said to my daughter, ‘Your dad has arrived,'” he stated, crying. “At first she couldn’t understand, and then she rushed in — she was crying, I was crying … for a very long time. My son too! These are emotions that cannot be described.”

Tsikhanouski, who says his well being has deteriorated behind bars, plans to bear a medical examination in Lithuania. He says chilly and starvation have been “the main causes of illness” that affected practically all political prisoners in Belarus, who have been subjected to “especially harsh conditions.”

“There were skin diseases, and everyone had kidney problems from the cold — and no one really understood what was happening,” Tsikhanouski stated. “Blood came out of my mouth, from my nose. Sometimes I had convulsions — but it was all because of the cold, that terrible cold when you sit in those punishment cells.”

“There is no medical care in prison — none at all, just so you know …” he stated.

Tsikhanouski stated situations barely improved after the February 2024 loss of life of Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny in a jail colony.

“When Alexei Navalny died, I thought, that’ll probably be me soon … And then something changed. It was clear that someone at the top said, ‘Make sure he doesn’t die here. We don’t need that problem.’ It got just a bit softer … At some point, word came down: Tsikhanouski must be kept alive, not killed.”

Pointing the finger at Putin

Tsikhanouski blames Russian President Vladimir Putin for propping up Lukashenko, each in the course of the 2020 protests and to at the present time.

Russia helps Belarus’s financial system with loans and sponsored oil and fuel. 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 robust assist for Ukraine, calling the Kremlin a typical evil for each nations.

“If it weren’t for Putin, we would already be living in a different country. Putin recognized Lukashenko’s victory in the election, he called black white. That is, he refused to see the falsifications,” Tsikhanouski stated. “They help each other. Because of Putin, this illegal government is still in Belarus.”

Some analysts have speculated that by releasing the charismatic and energetic Tsikhanouski, Belarusian authorities could also be making an attempt to sow division throughout the opposition. However Tsikhanouski insists he has no intention of difficult his spouse’s position because the internationally acknowledged head of the Belarusian opposition, and he requires unity.

“Under no circumstances do I plan to criticize any Belarusians, condemn or complain about anyone,” he stated.

Tsikhanouski says he won’t cease combating and needs to return to energetic 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 don’t know anymore — will he go or won’t he?” Tsikhanouski stated. “Many people say nothing will change until he dies. But I’m still counting on democratic forces winning.”