Belarus Releases Detained U.S. Citizen Anastasia Nuhfer, Says Washington

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on January 26 that American citizen Anastasia Nuhfer was released from a Belarusian prison.

Without offering details, Rubio wrote on X that Nuhfer had been detained during the presidency of Joe Biden and had been "unilaterally released" by Belarus.

Details surrounding Nuhfer's detention remain unclear, with her name previously absent from public discourse. Minsk never disclosed her name, and Washington does not release the names of detained Americans abroad without the consent of their families.

Lithuania-based Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya welcomed Nuhfer's release and highlighted the plight of political prisoners in Belarus under authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenko.

"Thank you to our [American] friends for your advocacy on [Nuhfer's] behalf and for all political prisoners in Belarus," she wrote on X. "Every one of them must be freed. We will continue to fight for the release of all unjustly detained."

Nuhfer's release was announced on the same day that Belarus is holding a presidential election in which Lukashenko is set to secure a seventh term in office in a vote described as a "sham" by Western leaders.

Belarus has faced international criticism for its treatment of political prisoners and suppression of dissent.

Ahead of the January 26 election, state media aired propaganda films featuring detained RFE/RL journalists Andrey Kuznechyk and Ihar Losik, as well as Ihar Karney, who previously wrote for RFE/RL.

Another prominent figure imprisoned in Belarus is U.S. citizen Yuras Zyankovich, a Belarusian-American lawyer and opposition politician.