Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Freed from Belarusian Penal Colony

Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ales Bialiatski, was recently freed from a Belarusian penal colony while serving a 10-year term for "smuggling" and "financing public disorder." He was freed as part of a deal, whereby the U.S. will lift certain sanctions on Belarusian potash (a major source of cash for the country) in exchange for the release of certain political prisoners. The article is worth a read for the its description of conditions in the penal colony: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/world/europe/belarus-sanctions-potash-ales-bialiatski.html?searchResultPosition=1