Belarus releases US woman detained last month 'as a show of goodwill'

US secretary of state says Belarus 'unilaterally' freed detained American woman Marco Rubio It was announced on Sunday that the Kremlin-aligned country had held a carefully orchestrated election, preparing to give the strongman President Alexander Lukashenko He gained another term on top of his thirty years in power.

Rubio's post on the X social network identified the U.S. citizen as Anastassia Nuhfer. The report said she was detained during former President Joe Biden's term in office, but did not specify when or why.

Rubio's statement follows a wave of prisoner releases by Lukashenko, who is often called “Europe's last dictator.” Viasna, Belarus' oldest human rights organization, said more than 1,250 people were still detained for opposing the authorities.

Sunday's election was called a sham by Lukashenko's opponents, many of whom are imprisoned or in exile due to Lukashenko's ruthless crackdown on dissent and free speech. The last election in 2020 sparked months of massive protests that were unprecedented in the United States. belarus history.

The U.S. State Department said late Sunday that Nouf was detained in early December 2024. The State Department said a consular official in Washington was granted rare access to a U.S. detainee in Belarus earlier this month.

A former senior Belarusian diplomat told The Associated Press that Noukhfer's arrest was related to the 2020 protests, but he gave no details. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, said Lukashenko himself offered to release the American citizen “as a show of goodwill” but refused to release any Belarusian opposition and rights activists.

Nukhfer's release came as a surprise to the public and even Belarusian activists. Her name has not been released and she does not appear on the list of political prisoners.

Pavel Sapelka of the Viasna human rights organization said he and his colleagues were unaware of her arrest and its circumstances.

Lukashenko's support for the war in Ukraine led to a breakdown in Belarus' relations with the United States and the European Union, ending his ploy to use the West to try to win more subsidies from the Kremlin.

But Artyom Shraybman, a Belarus expert at the Carnegie Center on Russia and Eurasia, predicts that Minsk may seek to engage with the West again after the election to try to reduce its total dependence on Russia.

“Lukashenko's interim goal is to use this election to confirm his legitimacy and try to overcome his isolation in order to at least start a dialogue with the West about easing sanctions,” Schreibman said.

It was unclear what concessions Minsk was demanding in exchange for the U.S. citizen's release.