ALMATY/JUNE 2 2021 (The Bulletin) — Belarus freed three anti-government protesters after an intervention from former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the spokesperson of Belarusian Pres. Aleksandr Lukashenko said, a few days before Kazakhstan also declined to join Russia-led sanctions against the West.
The three ethnic Polish Belarusian citizens — Irena Biernacka, Maria Tishkovska and Anna Panisheva — were freed on June 2 and sent to Poland. They had been in prison since March when they were arrested for spreading Nazi propaganda. Two other leaders of the Polish minority in Belarus are still in prison.
When asked why they had been released, Natalia Ejsmont, the Belarusian spokesperson, said: “Do you remember the talks between the Belarusian President and the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev? They took place in April, and it was then that the freeing of activists of the Union of Poles in Belarus was discussed. (Nazarbayev) asked for their release.” Mr Nazarbayev has not commented.
Pres. Lukashenko has cracked down hard on protesters since an election last year which his opponents said was rigged. Thousands have been imprisoned on charges that they say are arbitrary. Allegations of abuse and torture against the Belarusian security services are common.
News of the apparent intervention by Mr Nazarbayev, who likes to play the elder statesman in the former Soviet Union, came a few days before the Kazakh government declined to take part in Russia-organised sanctions against the West. The sanctions, which the Kremlin had expected the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to back, were designed as retaliation against Western sanctions against Belarus after it forced a passenger jet flying from Athens to Vilnius to land in Minsk so that it could arrest a dissident journalist.
Explaining its decision not to back the sanctions, Kazakhstan said that it “takes the position that processes within the EAEU are purely economic.” Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are EAEU members.
ENDS
— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021
