After five years in prison, the opposition figure Tihanovsky speaks

Sergei Tihanovski has almost not been talking for more than five years.

All this time, he was kept alone in a high -security Belarusian prison to pull himself to a dictator.

Now the former opposition blogger is free and the words run out of him so quickly that his thoughts sometimes struggle to continue.

“The speaking restriction was the most difficult,” Sergei said when we met in Vilnius shortly after his surprising edition.

“When you can’t say or write anything, you can’t talk to anyone and you’re just trapped in a cage – this is the most difficult thing – not the movement limit.”

Sergei has already been exiled, released with 13 other political prisoners, after a senior US delegation visited a rare visit to Belarus Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian ruler.

When I ask about gathering with his family, Sergei raises his hand to his face and cries.

His daughter was only four when he was arrested.

“She didn’t know me,” he eventually succeeds after a long pause. “Then she threw herself into my hands and we hugged each other for a long time.”

Sergei’s transformation after his arrest is shocking.

Back in 2020, he was tough and bearded. Now the face under his narrowly shaved head is insightful. He says he lost almost 60 kg (132 pounds) in prison, where he spent endless weeks in penal cells.

“I’m physically half the size and half of the weight,” says Sergei. “But my spirit is not broken. It may be even stronger.”

“Before I hear only about the crimes of this regime, but now I saw them first -hand and we have to fight it.”

Until last week, Sergei Tihanovski was one of the most famous political prisoners in Belarus.

Prior to the 2020 presidential election, he developed a big YouTube, following shooting outline interviews about people’s complaints and problems.

Then he tried to register to manage, waving a giant slipper and calling on the Belarusians to “stop the cockroach!”

“I used the chance to show that it is impossible to win democratic in Belarus,” Sergei explains. “I wanted to show the elections fake and they arrested me.”

When his wife Svetlana Tihanovskaya continued to run in his place, she attracted huge crowds. After Lukashenko stated another implausible victory, these crowds became a mass protest, which soon became mass arrests.

In prison, Sergei was constantly separating for poor treatment like the other high profile figures-“those who think they are the most dangerous or those who want to destroy,” as he says.

“I have been in total isolation in the last two and a half years. I have not received a single letter for almost three years. For almost three years, I have not allowed me to have telephone calls,” he says.

He was even allowed to see a priest.

“They would say,” You will die in prison. We will continue to extend our time and you will not go out. “

To make things worse, Sergei is often sent to a punishment cell – for marking the wall or a stray web.

“These cells can be three more two meters, including a hole in the toilet floor,” he recalls. “No mattress, no sheet and no pillows.”

He would get up every hour at night to warm up with squats and sitting, then lie on the wooden pair until his arms and legs grabbed and he had to start the exercises at first.

In order to cope, he had to empty his brain from all the thoughts of family and friends.

“You have to put it on one side,” he says. “Because if you think about how they are and what happens to them, you will not survive.”

It was last August when Sergei began to think he could get out.

Then the deputy prosecutor began to go around prisons and “seriously recommended” political detainees “to write to the dictator and to ask for the pardon,” as Sergei says.

Lukashenko was suddenly lit to look gracious and several dozen were released.

Sergei and other big names, such as Victor Babaraka and Maria Kolesnikova, have never been in any lists.

But he never entertained the idea of ​​confessing, even if he returned to his children.

“I’m not a criminal,” he explains. “So this would be a betrayal of all who support me.”

Then the United States entered last week.

When the Special Messenger Keith Kelloga travels to Minsk to intervene for US citizens in prison, he also appeared with Sergei.

For Lukashenko, the meeting with Kelloge was a great profit diplomatic.

It has been ostracized by Western countries since suppressing the 2020 peace protests.

His active support for Russia in the invasion of Ukraine isolates him even more.

“Now Lukashenko can show that some cooperation, dialogue with the US, is beginning,” Sergei says, explaining what Lukashenko has to release some prisoners.

“That was the price: the beginning of contact with him. Because no one was engaged.”

Sergei wants nothing more than all other political prisoners. A total of more than 1000.

In tears, he describes the meeting with an “old man” recently, who turned out to be a young friend, over the prison recognition.

“I would give everything to get them out,” Sergei says. “I think we have to pay at all costs. But I don’t want them to refuse all the sanctions.”

Sergei’s wife, now the leader of the opposition, is glad to bring him back with her and their children. But Svetlana tells me that she is cautious from the next move in the United States.

“We can’t soften the sanctions until the repression is completely stopped,” she said. “For 14 people released, another 28 were detained immediately in Belarus. There is no change in politics for Lukashenko.”

Sergei’s first week of freedom went to Vihar from activity. He met with politicians, gave speeches, and wrote to Donald Trump with his thanks. He also caught up with the lost time with his children – as well as all the news he missed isolated.

But what about his ambitions? The last time he and Svetlana were together, she was the hostess and he was the political. So can there be tension?

“I have no claim to her role,” Sergei insists. “I don’t need this. I just need a democratic Belarus.”