TALLINN – The head of a leading trans-Atlantic security organization traveled to Belarus on Tuesday for the first time in seven years, as authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko works to repair his country’s strained relationship with the West.
Feridun Sinirlioglu, secretary-general of the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was in Belarus for an international security conference, where he also held talks with Lukashenko.
The visit was the first by an OSCE secretary-general to Belarus since 2019. The country, a firm ally of Russia, has endured years of Western sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
At the beginning of his meeting with Lukashenko, Sinirlioglu highlighted Belarus’ involvement in arranging prisoner-of-war exchanges between Russia and Ukraine.
Lukashenko said he “highly appreciates” the OSCE chief’s visit. He also accused the organization of taking what he called a pro-Western position and unfairly criticizing elections in Belarus and Russia.
The conference was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as diplomats representing former Soviet republics, China and other nations.
Lukashenko has ruled the country of 9.5 million for more than 30 years, maintaining a tightly controlled government. Western nations have repeatedly imposed sanctions on Belarus over its human rights crackdown and its support for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Belarusian opposition leader living in exile, said the meeting gave Lukashenko “a significant and entirely undeserved political reward.”
“High-level visits and meetings with Lukashenko — if they don’t lead to concrete changes — only strengthen his regime and foster a sense of impunity,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press.
She said diplomatic engagement should produce tangible outcomes, including the release of political prisoners, an end to repression and a halt to support for Russia’s aggression, rather than help the Belarusian government gain international legitimacy.
Lukashenko faced his most serious challenge in 2020, after a presidential election that kept him in power and was widely viewed as fraudulent. Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets, prompting a sweeping crackdown in which many were beaten by police and tens of thousands were detained. Leading opposition figures were jailed or forced to leave the country.
Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, Lukashenko has freed hundreds of political prisoners through a series of U.S.-mediated agreements. Some of those deals also eased American sanctions, forming part of the Belarusian leader’s effort to reduce his country’s isolation and rebuild ties with the West.
Under an agreement brokered with Washington’s assistance in March, Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners. In return, the United States lifted sanctions on two Belarusian state banks and the Finance Ministry, while also removing Belarus’ leading potash producers from a sanctions list. In September, Belarusian authorities freed 25 more prisoners as the United States lifted sanctions on two Belarusian companies.
Belarus’ opposition has welcomed the releases but warned that many people remain behind bars. The Viasna human rights center says the country still has 887 political prisoners.
