Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has been releasing groups of political prisoners, but the moves are seen as a ploy to bolster his image ahead of presidential elections in 2025. Since July, he has released 178 political prisoners, but at least 223 people have been recognized as political prisoners.
Lukashenko has claimed that all prisoners “pleaded guilty, repented,” and will remain under strict control of the Interior Ministry. However, human rights activists consider these releases to be a pre-election intimidation campaign.
The regime has also been waging repressions against any dissent, jailing over 1,300 political prisoners, eliminating independent media, and all but four loyalist parties since the contested 2020 presidential elections.
Lukashenko has threatened to shut down the internet if new protests emerge during the 2025 presidential elections. He claimed that the 2020 internet blackout was necessary to protect the country and asserted that no one was held down or beaten by police during the protests, despite widespread reports of brutality.
The opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has interpreted these threats as a sign of the regime’s insecurity, stating that Lukashenko is afraid of the Belarusian people.