After five years in prison, Figure Tikhanvsky spoke

Sergei Tikhanovsky is hardly told for more than five years.

All the time he was executed by the prison prison in Belarusian for daring to stand by a dictator.

Now the former opposition blogger is free, and the words flow from him quickly that his thoughts sometimes struggle with continuity.

“The restriction of speaking is the hardest thing,” Sergei trusted when we met Vilnius soon after his surprise release.

“If you can’t talk or write anything, you can’t talk to anyone and you just trapped in a cell – that’s the hardest thing – not the restriction of action.”

The Sergei is currently undergoing exile, released with 13 other political prisoners after a senior delegation in the US visited a remarkable visit to the ruler of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.

If I ask about his family’s association, Sergei has lifted a hand on his face and crying.

It was only four daughter when he was arrested.

“He didn’t recognize me,” he was in charge of the long run, after a long stop. “Then he dropped himself into my arms and we hugged for a long time.”

The Sergei changed since his arrest was shocked.

Back to 2020 he stocky and beard. Now the face under his close head-headed head. He said he lost nearly 60kg (132 pounds) in prison, where he spent the endless weeks of penalty cells.

“Physically I am half of size and half weight,” Sergei said. “But my spirit is not broken. Perhaps louder.”

“Before I hear the crimes of this regime, but now I see them first hand and we need to fight with that.”

Until last week, Sergei Tikhanovsky was one of the most popular political prisoners in Belarus.

Before 2020 presidency elections he has made a large YouTube that follows the filming candid interviews about people’s complaints.

Then he tried to register to run himself, giant slippers and calls to belususians to “stop the cockroach!”.

“I used the opportunity to show that it was impossible to win Belarus’s democratic,” Sergei explained. “I want to show that elections are fake, and they catch me.”

If his wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, continued to run his place where he had taken many people. After Lukashenko claimed another bad victory, those people became a protest that soon became mass arrests.

In prison, Sergei is often chosen for painful treatment such as other high-profile numbers – “in what they think is more dangerous, or who they want to be destroyed”, as he has destroyed it.

“Within the last two and a half years I was alone. I didn’t get a letter for almost three years they didn’t allow me on the phone,” he said.

He was not allowed to see a priest.

“They say: You will die in prison. We keep going to come in your time and can’t go out.”

To worse things, Sergei often sent to a penalty cell – for a marked wall or a stray cobweb.

“Those cells can be three-meters, including a hole in the floor for a toilet,” he remembered. “There is no mattress, no blanket and no cushions.”

He’ll get up every night to keep warm in sets of squats and skitt-ups, after laying the bunk until her arms and legs get all the exercises.

To cope, he has to eliminate his brain with all the minds of family and friends.

“You need to put that on one side,” he said. “Because if you think about how they are and what happened to them, you can’t live.”

Last August when the Sergei began to think he could go out.

That is if the Deputy Prodectutor begins with the tour prisons and “seriously recommended” political detainers “dictatorly and ask his pardon” while putting it in Sergei.

Lukashenko suddenly searches to be compassionate and many dozen is released.

Sergei and the other big names, such as Viktor Babaryka and Maria Kolesnikova, never have any lists.

But he never welcomes the idea of ​​confession, even when his children return.

“I’m not a criminal,” he explained. “So it’s a betrayal of all who support me.”

After last week the United States went in.

Special Envoy Keith Keith Keith Kellogg traveled to Minsk to intervene for American citizens in prison, he also left Sergei.

For Lukashenko, Kellogg meeting is a great diplomatic victory.

He was angry with western countries since he prevents peaceful protests in 2020.

His active support for Russia to invade Ukraine is more sitting on him.

“Today Lukashenko can show some operations, a US dialog,” Sergei said, explained what Lukashenko explained to releasing some prisoners.

“That’s the price: the start of contact him. Because no one is involved.”

Sergei also wants nothing more for all other political prisoners to release. Have more than 1,000 in general.

In tears, he describes the meeting with an “old man” recently becomes a young friend, old enough to recognize prison.

“I give anything to bring them all,” Sergei said. “I think we should pay any price. But I don’t want them to drop all the sanctions.”

Sergei’s wife, who now leads the opposition, glad to return him with him and their children. But Svetlana told me that he was concerned with next US movement.

“We can’t soften sanctions until disobediors stop,” he argues. “Within 14 people immediately released Belarus. For Lukashenko, there is no policy change.”

The first week of Sergei freedom was passed into a whirl activity. He met with politicians, made talks and written by Donald Trump in his gratitude. He also got the lost time with his children – as well as all the news he missed the isolation.

But what about his ambitions? The last time he and Svetlana were united as he was a servant at home and was political. So have stresses?

“I have no claims on his paper,” Sergei forced. “I don’t have to do that. I just need a democratic Belarus.”