"I was recently in Kyiv and heard evaluations of your work — they are far from triumphant." Tsikhanouskaya's advisor sharply responded to Kavaleuski

Leanid Marozau. Photo: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's Office

Valery Kavaleuski stated that Tsikhanouskaya is slowing down the process of releasing political prisoners

"Dear Valery, accusing Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya of allegedly 'slowing down the release of political prisoners' is either a deliberate distortion of reality or an attempt to substitute strategy with tactical episodes. In recent months, hundreds of new criminal cases and dozens of new sentences have been recorded," writes Leanid Marozau.

The total number of recognized political prisoners since 2020 has exceeded four thousand, and over a thousand people remain in prisons. At the same time, releases occur in parallel with the opening of new cases. This is not "softening," it is a rotation of hostages.

To call this a success of humanitarian diplomacy and at the same time blame those who demand systemic criteria for de-escalation is, at the very least, strange.

I would very much like that, after the comma, in your stories in Geneva, you would also not forget to mention this. As long as you don't, I wonder why?

The position that sanctions can only be reviewed with a stable and verifiable reduction in repression is not radicalism, but basic logic. If partial releases are exchanged for political concessions without changes in legislation, without stopping new cases, without abolishing "extremist" lists and supervision of the released, this creates an incentive to take new people hostage. The history of relations with the regime confirms this many times over. Any agreements without clear criteria and verification mechanisms turn into an imitation of progress.

If you really want to sit at the "peace table in Minsk," you can say so. Though something tells me you'll simply end up sitting [in prison].

A person released today remains under surveillance, with the risk of night checks, employment restrictions, financial blockages, and the status of an "extremist." If a person is forced to leave the country within 48 hours because it is impossible to live there, this is not a full-fledged release. It is forced exile. To ignore this context and reduce the discussion to the formula "freedom at any cost" means to deliberately simplify the problem.

Statements that the call for coordination of sanctions policy between the US and the EU allegedly splits the West appear particularly paradoxical. It was the alignment of approaches in 2020-2025 that intensified pressure and created negotiation leverage. Division arises when different actors begin sending conflicting signals to the regime about readiness for concessions without systemic changes.

Separately, it's worth mentioning the personal aspect. Valery, you were long involved in the Ukrainian direction. I was recently in Kyiv and heard evaluations of your work — they are far from triumphant.

The passport direction is not hearsay to me: I am personally familiar with the results achieved and why the process stalled. Now, criticism is voiced in the human rights sphere. Experience suggests that when strategic depth is replaced by public polemics, a political direction can end up like previous ones — with loud statements without institutional results. So far, all I read and see is the "you're a fool" position.

Criticism is permissible and necessary. But it must be based on an understanding of the nature of the regime. I really like the phrase "if you run hard to the left, you will quickly find yourself on the right" — perhaps I will quickly see you there.

In Belarus, repressions are institutionalized by dozens of regulatory acts. This is not a situational campaign that can be curtailed by a series of exchanges. The demand for systemic criteria is not a slowdown of the process, but an attempt to make it irreversible. If someone offers an alternative, it must include an answer to a simple question: How will one-time relaxations stop the flow of new criminal cases? As long as there is no such answer, accusations and "slowing down of releases" sound like political rhetoric, not a well-thought-out strategy," wrote Leanid Marozau.

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