Belarus Freed 25: Trump Chose Deals Over Democracy
Since Alexander Lukashenko violently suppressed the 2020 protests and handed Belarus to Moscow as a forward base, the EU has treated his government as untouchable.
Belarus Freed 25: Trump Chose Deals Over Democracy
Belarus has released 25 political prisoners in exchange for a partial easing of U.S. sanctions, according to the New York Times, marking one of the most explicit examples yet of the Trump administration's transactional approach to authoritarian governments.
The release, negotiated directly with Minsk, bypasses the European position entirely. Since Alexander Lukashenko violently suppressed the 2020 protests and handed Belarus to Moscow as a forward base, the EU has treated his government as untouchable. Washington has now touched it.
The 25 freed prisoners represent a fraction of the thousands detained since the crackdown. Human rights groups have been careful not to celebrate. Trading sanctions relief for selective releases, they argue, hands Lukashenko a tool — the hostage economy, where political prisoners become bargaining chips redeemable against Western policy.
For Europe, the move is a problem at two levels. It undermines years of coordinated pressure on a regime that borders Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia — all NATO members. And it signals, again, that Trump's Washington will cut bilateral arrangements that fracture Western unity, per the New York Times reporting.
Lukashenko remains in power. The prisoners released are not the ones who led the opposition. The sanctions eased are not the ones that hurt most.
The deal is done. What it purchased, and for whom, remains the question nobody in Brussels is comfortable answering aloud.
