00:00Outside the U.S. Embassy in Lithuania, crowds cheer as Belarusian political prisoners experience
00:05freedom for the first time in years.
00:08Aless Pialatsky, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while behind bars, was greeted
00:13by the exiled leader of the opposition, Svetlana Tsikhanoskaya, after being released from jail
00:18as part of a deal with Washington.
00:20He's vowed to continue his work as a human rights defender after his recovery.
00:24In the early hours of this morning, I was still in prison.
00:29I was there in completely different conditions, on a bunk, in a room, with almost 40 people.
00:34Now I'm free.
00:36123 prisoners were released on Saturday.
00:40Some were taken to Vilnius, but most to Ukraine.
00:43That includes Viktor Babariko, Lukashenko's main presidential opponent for 2020, along
00:48with activist Maria Kolesnikova, who ran his campaign and became a leader of the protest
00:53movement that followed the rigged election.
00:55Donald Trump's special envoy for Belarus met with Lukashenko in Minsk and announced the
01:00lifting of sanctions in return.
01:02President Lukashenko, who should get a tremendous amount of credit for this, I think that he
01:09is moving, he wants a more normalised relationship with the United States and the West, so we're
01:17moving in that direction.
01:20It's not the first deal of its kind, but confirms the US's softening stance on Belarus and break
01:25with the EU's position, which is to isolate Minsk for its crackdown on human rights and
01:30for allowing Moscow to use its territory in its invasion of Ukraine.
01:34The Nobel Committee has welcomed the release of the activists, but has called on Belarusian
01:38authorities to release all political prisoners.
01:41Rights groups estimate more than 1,200 remain behind bars.
01:44And this is the first deal for the years of the United States and the United States.
01:54So, this is the first deal of the EU's work that is based on the EU's rights and the EU's
01:58rights.
01:59It's the first deal of the EU's rights and the EU's rights and the EU's rights.
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