Key dissendent figure Siarhei Tsikhanouski, longtime radio correspondent Ihar Karnei, and 12 others walked free after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with a top U.S. official in Minsk.

U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the highest-profile visit of a U.S. official to the authoritarian state in years.

Siarhei Tsikhanouski, the husband of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, has been unexpectedly released from prison, along with 13 other political prisoners.