Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the human rights group Viasna, was freed in a negotiated exchange that released 123 political prisoners from Belarus in return for an easing of USA sanctions on the country’s potash sector. The deal, brokered by Alexander Lukashenko through an envoy linked to Donald Trump, also secured the freedom of opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova, Japanese citizen Masatoshi Nakanishi and others, while Russia and human rights advocates criticized the arrangement and what they saw as passivity from the EU. Speaking from exile in Lithuania after describing harsh conditions in Penal Colony No. 9, including solitary confinement and constant humiliations, Bialiatski said his Nobel Peace Prize partly shielded him from the worst abuses, vowed to continue his work for Viasna, urged the EU and USA to apply firm pressure and credible negotiations to end repression, and warned that about 1,110 political prisoners, including colleagues Marfa Rabkova and Valiantsin Stefanovich, remain jailed as Minsk seeks cautious rapprochement with the West.