Move seen as effort to win US favour and sanctions relief, as crackdown on dissent continues
Belarus has released 52 prisoners of various nationalities, after a visit by a US delegation to Minsk, in Alexander Lukashenko’s latest attempt to balance ties between Russia and the west.
Thursday’s prisoner release was one of the biggest of Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule, and was part of his effort to mend relations with Washington and secure sanctions relief after years of isolation.
Those freed included 14 foreign nationals – one Briton, one French national, six Lithuanians, two Latvians, two Poles, and two Germans – as well as a number of Belarusian political prisoners.
A Belarusian opposition Telegram channel said the released British national was the 52-year-old Julia Fenner, who was detained in March 2024 while entering Belarus and later sentenced to seven years in prison for participating in the 2020 anti-government protests.
