Bialiatski stated that he was freed thanks to Western sanctions against Lukashenka, and called not to soften them

Photo: AP Photo Mindaugas Kulbis

The British newspaper The Times published an interview with Ales Bialiatski. Radio Svaboda recounts the main points of the interview.

"The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former political prisoner in Belarus warned of the danger of easing sanctions against the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenka," writes The Times.

Ales Bialiatski warns against easing sanctions, which, he says, freed him from Alexander Lukashenka's regime's prison, the publication writes. The newspaper reminds that the US gradually eased its trade restrictions for Belarus, once called "Europe's last dictatorship," during negotiations that facilitated the release of Ales Bialiatski along with dozens of other political prisoners.

However, the country's most famous human rights defender is convinced that Great Britain and the rest of Europe should not do the same, the publication writes.

"Without political and economic sanctions, we would have remained in prison," Bialiatski said, explaining that these measures provide the leverage needed for negotiations on the release of prisoners. "Only a sharp deterioration in Belarus's economic situation in recent months forced the authorities to seek a way out. The regime has no political opponents, no democratic journalists. It has suppressed cultural and youth initiatives."

Bialiatski describes conditions similar to the Soviet Gulag, in which political prisoners are held.

"You can die there — they simply won't provide you with medical help," he told The Times from his new residence in Norway. "If you survive, it means you were lucky."

Bialiatski's wife wrote to him every week, but he received only a few of her letters, and prison guards never forwarded his replies to her. Upon Bialiatski's release, all his documents were confiscated, including two book manuscripts he had written in captivity. Like many other Belarusian political prisoners, he speaks cautiously about his suffering but reported that he was denied treatment for two years after developing leg problems.

"They were watching to see how it would end," he said. Fruits and vegetables were so rare that for the entire year 2025, the only fresh fruit Bialiatski ate was one apple.

Among other things, Bialiatski answered how changes could occur in Belarus.

"Whether it's like in Spain after the death of Francisco Franco or like in Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution — there are many different options," Bialiatski said. "But I am convinced that these changes are inevitable in Belarus, because today this junta that holds power does not have the support of the people."

Bialiatski also stated that Lukashenka was "a destroyer of Belarusian national identity and Belarusian national consciousness," and consistently destroys his country's distinctiveness in continuation of a two-century policy of Russification, the ultimate goal of which is the unification of the two states.

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