US Secretary of State said that Belarus has freed an American woman from custody in a “unilateral” manner. Marco Rubio It was announced on Sunday, as the Kremlin-cooperative country held a planned election to give a strong person. President Alexander Luakshhenko Another tenure at the top of three decades in power.
Rubio's post on X social networks identified the American citizen as Anastasia Nuhfar. It states that he was detained during the tenure of former President Joe Biden, but was not reported when and why.
Rubio's statement came after the waves of prisoners' release by Lakhakhenko, often called the “last dictator of Europe”. Viasna, the oldest rights group of Belarus, says more than 1,250 people are in custody due to opposition from officials.
Opponents of Lakshhenko, many of whom have been imprisoned or exiled abroad due to their harsh action on disagreement and freedom of expression, have said a pretense on Sunday's election. The last election held in 2020 led to an unprecedented massive protests for several months. Belarusian history,
The US State Department later said on Sunday that Nuhfar was detained in early December 2024. It states that earlier this month, a consular officer from Washington was provided with rare access to an American captive in Belarus.
A former highly placed Belarusi diplomat told AP that Nuhfar's arrest was associated with the 2020 protests, although he did not provide details. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said that Lakashnco himself offered the American citizen to “release” as a sign of goodwill, while any belarian opposition and rights activists refused to release Done
The release of Nuhfar surprised the public and even Belarusian workers. His name was not released publicly and his name was not included in the list of political prisoners.
Pavel Sapelka of the Viasna Rights Group said that he and his colleagues were unaware of his arrest or its circumstances.
The support of Luxhenko for the war in Ukraine broke the Belarus relations with the US and the European Union, which ended their game skills to use the West to gain more subsidy from the Kremlin.
But Belarus expert, Artom Shrayabman at Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center predicted that Minsk could try to reducing its total dependence on Russia after the election, trying to reach the West again.
“Luakshhenko's interim goal is to use choice to confirm its legitimacy and attempts to overcome their isolation to start interaction with West about least restorations to confirm their legitimacy,” the serbman said.
It was not clear what concessions the Minsk sought in exchange for releasing the American citizen.