June 23, Pozirk. Minsk expects reciprocal steps in exchange for the recent release of several jailed dissidents and foreigners, Ivan Tertel, head of the Belarusian Committee for State Security (KGB), told a state-run TV channel in an interview broadcast yesterday evening.
“We must develop good neighborly relations with different countries and de-escalate this situation,” he said. “If no major decisions are made . . . we may find ourselves in a very, very difficult situation with unpredictable consequences.”
The Western neighbors should appreciate the overture and modify their policies towards Belarus, the KGB chief noted in an apparent reference to foreigners pardoned, including three Poles, two Latvians and one Estonian.
The release of 14 persons on June 21, including prominent opposition figure Siarhiej Cichanoŭski, had been a result of Minsk’s engagement with Washington for more than a year, Tertel said.
The United States is not the only foreign contact of Alaksandar Łukašenka, the KGB chief added, without specifying any further details.
European politicians welcomed Minsk’s move but called for the release of all political prisoners.
On June 23, human rights defenders said that at least 1,176 people were still held in prisons on political grounds in Belarus.
Based on Tertel’s statement, Łukašenka has been negotiating with Washington since mid-2024, so engagement began under the administration of President Joe Biden. The Belarusian strongman pardoned the first group of prisoners in early July 2024. In all, he has pardoned more than 300 since then.
Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, met Łukašenka in Minsk on June 21 before the release of Cichanoŭski and the others. It was the first public visit by a high-ranking US official in five years after Łukašenka declared himself the winner of the disputed 2020 election.
