Five years after being imprisoned, opposition figure Tikanovsky yells

Sergei Tikhanovsky has hardly spoken for more than five years.

During this time he has been detained in an isolated and highly secure Belarusian prison because he dared to stand up and become a dictator.

Now, the former opposition blogger is free and the words are so quickly flowing out of him that his thoughts are sometimes hard to keep up.

Shortly after our unexpected release, we met in Vilnius, saying, “The restriction on speaking is the hardest thing.”

“When you can’t say or write anything, you can’t talk to anyone and you’re just stuck in a cell – it’s the hardest thing, not the limit on exercise.”

Sergei is now forced to exile, released along with 13 other political prisoners, and has made a rare visit to the authoritarian rulers of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, in a high-level delegation.

When I asked about reunion with my family, Sergey reached out to his face and cried.

His daughter was only four years old when she was arrested.

“She doesn’t know me.” After a long pause, he finally managed it. “Then she threw herself into my arms and we hugged her for a long time.”

Sergei’s shift since his arrest is shocking.

As early as 2020, he was very short and fat and had a beard. Now, the face under his closed head is gaunt. He said he lost nearly 60 kilograms (132 pounds) in prison, where he spent weeks in punishment for the cell.

“Physically, I weigh half of it,” Sergei said. “But my spirit is not broken. Maybe it’s stronger.”

“Before I had only heard of the crimes of this regime, but now I have seen them firsthand and we have to fight them.”

Until last week, Sergei Tikhanovsky was one of Belarus’ most prominent political prisoners.

Before the 2020 presidential election, he developed a large YouTube by shooting candid interviews about people’s complaints and problems.

He then tried to register himself, waving his giant slippers and calling on the Belarusians to “stop cockroaches!”.

“I took advantage of the opportunity to show that it is impossible to win with democracy in Belarus,” Sergei explained. “I want to prove that the election is fake, and they arrested me.”

As his wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, continued running around his place, she attracted a large crowd. After Lukashenko won another incredible victory, those crowds became mass protests and soon became mass arrests.

In prison, Sergei, like other high-profile figures, is often picked out to receive bad treatment – “the person they think is the most dangerous, or the person they want to destroy”, as he said.

“I’ve been completely isolated over the last two and a half years. I haven’t received a letter for nearly three years. They haven’t let me call for nearly three years,” he said.

He didn’t even allow him to see the priest.

“They will say: You will die in prison. We will continue to extend your time and you won’t leave.”

Worse, Sergey is often sent to a punishment cell – a marker on the wall or a wandering spider web.

“These cells were probably three or two meters, including a hole in the floor,” he recalled. “No mattresses, no sheets, and no pillows.”

He will get up every hour throughout the evening to maintain a set of squats and lying on the wooden bed until his arms and legs are caught and he has to start practicing again.

To cope, he had to clear all the thoughts of his family and friends.

“You have to put it on one side,” he said. “Because if you think about their condition and what happened, you won’t be able to survive.”

Last August, Sergei began to think he might leave.

At that time, the deputy prosecutor began to tour the prison and seriously “advise the “political detainees” to write to the dictator and demand his pardon”, as Sergei said.

Lukashenko suddenly became keen on kindness and released dozens of them.

Sergei and other well-known figures, such as Viktor Babaryka and Maria Kolesnikova, were never on any list.

But he never accepted the idea of ​​confession and even returned to his children.

“I’m not a criminal,” he explained. “It’s going to be a betrayal of all those who support me.”

Then the United States stepped in last week.

Sergei also appeared when the special envoy, Keith Kellogg, went to Minsk to intercede to American citizens in prison.

For Lukashenko, the meeting with Kellogg was a great diplomatic victory.

He has been excluded by Western countries since the crackdown on peaceful protests in 2020.

His active support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine further quarantine.

“Now Lukashenko can show that the dialogue with the United States has begun some collaboration,” Sergei said.

“That’s the price: the beginning of contact with him. Because no one was involved.”

Sergei also wanted to release all other political prisoners. There are more than 1,000 in total.

In tears, he described meeting an “old man” who was recently proven to be a young friend and was imprisoned.

“I will do everything I can to get them all out,” Sergei said. “I think we should pay anything. But I don’t want them to give up all sanctions.”

Sergei’s wife, now the leader of the opposition, was delighted to have him and her return with their children. But Svetlana told me that I was cautious about the next American action.

“We cannot soften sanctions until the repression is completely stopped,” she said. “For the 14 released, 28 were immediately detained in Belarus. For Lukashenko, the policy has not changed.”

The first week of freedom for Sergei is over. He met politicians, gave speeches and wrote to Donald Trump. He has also been catching up with the lost time with his children – and all the news he missed in isolation.

But what about his ambitions? The last time he and Svetrana were together, she was a housewife, who was a political housewife. Will there be tensions?

“I have no claim to her role,” Sergei insisted. “I don’t need it. I just need democratic Belarus.”