Belarus releases journalist Andrzej Poczobut
Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut has been released as part of a prisoner exchange after five years' internment in Belarus. Poczobut (53), who is a reporter for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper and a member of the country's Polish minority, was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to eight years in a labour camp in 2023. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed him in person at the border.
No bypassing Washington
For Interia, Poczobut's release is proof of America's clout:
“You can like or dislike Trump as much as you want, but Andrzej Poczobut's release shows how important the US is as an ally for Poland, and that it is not a good idea to demonstratively turn your back on it under the pretext of alleged 'disloyalty' [recently invoked by Prime Minister Donald Tusk]. No one else in the West has the power to exert such pressure on the Lukashenko regime, let alone on Russia.”
Tusk on good terms with Trump
Polityka does not agree that Poland's relations with the White House have suffered under liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk:
“At this point all we know is that Poczobut is free and is somewhere in Poland. And that the Trump government played a key role in his release, as Foreign Minister Sikorski admitted. So the success has two fathers: both Polish and US diplomacy. And this will benefit the Trump and the Tusk government alike. Sikorski described this coup as an example of the outstanding Polish-American alliance. He signalled that Trump's White House was cooperating with the Tusk government. In other words, it is considered just as good a partner as the PiS government was previously.”
This kindles hope for more
Rzeczpospolita sees potential for Belarus to gradually open up to the West:
“There's no ignoring the fact that Poczobut's release provides a fragile yet real hope of political change in Minsk. We should certainly not expect pro-democratic reforms overnight, but it does confirm that Alexander Lukashenko is interested moving closer to the West, and thereby to Poland. The Belarusian dictator is brutal and ruthless, he does not release prisoners on humanitarian grounds. But he is an experienced politician, and it will not have escaped him that Vladimir Putin has no perspective in the war with Ukraine that has been dragging on for years.”