Tikhanovsky Urged The U.S. To Wisely Use The Available Leverage On Lukashenko
- 4.02.2026, 12:09
The ex-political prisoner spoke at a congressional hearing.
Currently, there are "only three realistic ways" to free the political prisoners remaining held hostage by Alexander Lukashenko: "foreign military intervention, taking them abroad in exchange for something, or coercive diplomacy, which is being conducted by US President Donald Trump." This opinion was expressed by Sergei Tikhanovsky on February 3 at a hearing on the human rights situation in Belarus before the Commission on Human Rights Tom Lantos in the U.S. Congress. The former Belarusian political prisoner appeared as one of the witnesses, writes "Pozirk".
At the same time, he said he supports the third option.
Tikhanovsky said that Trump needs Lukashenko much more than Lukashenko needs Trump, which gives the U.S. administration a "huge leverage" on the Belarusian dictator, which the former political prisoner urged to use wisely.
According to Tikhanovsky, Lukashenko trades with Washington not only hostages, but also actively tries to attract American business to the Belarusian national airlines, the potash industry and nuclear power. He also drew attention to Lukashenko's active attempts to play the role of an intermediary in the relations between the United States and Russia.
In view of all the above-mentioned factors, according to Tikhanovsky, if Washington has the political will, it is possible not only to get Lukashenko to release all the hostages of the regime, but also to insist on the cessation of political repression.
He also noted that he has "additional recommendations," which he prefers to discuss "privately, non-publicly."
"I ask you one thing: please do not stop. You have already saved doctors, politicians, bloggers and even a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (Ales Bialiatski), but more than 1,100 people remain in detention," Tikhanovsky appealed to the U.S. representatives.
The witness also spoke about the conditions of his detention, separately thanking the U.S. side for his release.
Tikhanovsky noted that there are people in detention in Belarus, whom, as he put it, Lukashenko hides from the U.S. side and "will not agree to release under any circumstances." He referred to them as former judges, investigators, security officers, lawyers and officials, whom Lukashenko considers traitors. According to the ex-political prisoner, such people are held in the most difficult conditions and "are subjected to the most brutal torture."
Tikhanovsky named one of them - former special services officer Vladimir Kniga, who should be "saved as soon as possible, if he is still alive."
The Republican member of the US House of Representatives Christopher Smith, who chaired the hearing, opened the event by saying, among other things, that the US authorities (unlike their president Donald Trump. - "Pozirk.") do not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.
Being the initiator and main author of the existing four editions of the Democracy in Belarus Act, Smith expressed confidence that Congress will also adopt the fifth version of the document, which was first adopted in 2004 and updated in 2006, 2011 and 2020.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is a bipartisan human rights commission in the U.S. House of Representatives.
It monitors the human rights situation in various countries, holds hearings and briefings, and makes recommendations to U.S. lawmakers and government agencies.
Besides Sergei Tikhanovski, the witnesses at the February 3 hearing included Svetlana Tikhanovska's diplomatic adviser Denis Kuczynski, the head of the Lithuanian office of the human rights organization Freedom House Vytis Jurkonis, and U.S. international human rights lawyer Jasmine D. Cameron.