Lifting Sanctions on Belarus for Release of Prisoners Alone Resembles FRG-GDR Deals during Cold War and is Helping Keep Lukahenka’s Regime Alive, Bialiatski Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 6 – One can only welcome the release of political prisoners, Belarusian Nobelist Ales Bialitski says; but if that is not part of a broader effort to change Lukashenka’s regime, it shouldn't involve the lifting of Western sanctions now as it is a repeat of what happened in the Cold War when West Germany purchased prisoners from East Germany and helped prop up the Communist regime in the latter.

            Just as East Germany’s rulers could always arrest more people and seek more Deutschemarks for their release, Bialitski says, Lukashenka can always arrest more people in order to get more from the West unless the West recognizes that and seeks fundamental change (rfi.fr/ru/европа/20260406-алесь-беляцкий-снимать-санкции-с-беларуси-рано-хунта-торгует-людьми-только-и-всего).

            The Belarusian Nobelist, who has served two terms in Lukashenka’s prisons and was release only at the end of last year, says he of course welcomes the US “humanitarian effort” in Mensk which “is leading to the release of political prisoners.” But, he argues, everyone “must view the situation with clear eyes.”

            “Today, the Belarusian regime is a junta that enjoys absolutely no public support, holds thousands of political prisoners hostage, and has engaged in this human trafficking solely for the sake of lifting economic sanctions,” he says. “The process itself is a positive one—people are being released. Yet, new ‘human cargo’ is constantly being rounded up.”

And he continues: “We must look at least one step ahead and strive for the complete cessation of political repression; otherwise, the entire endeavor is utterly meaningless. What is unfolding now mirrors what we witnessed during the Soviet era, when the GDR simply sold political prisoners to West Germany in exchange for West German Deutschmarks”

During the Cold War, this process of exchanging prisoners went on and one, “with new prsioners being taken to replace those who had been sold, effectively a business that on the whole served to bolster the stability of the authoritarian system in the GDR.” Something all too similar is now happening with Belarus.

What is needed instead of such deals, Bialitski says, are “long-term strategies and long-term projects” from both the Americans and the Europeans, something that requires a clear understanding of how Lukashenka operates and why his dictatorship and ties to Russia are so dangerous for everyone.