Фото: @Bart_Wielinski
Gazeta Wyborcza has described how negotiations unfolded over the release of political prisoner Andrzej Poczobut, who was freed following an exchange carried out at the Polish-Belarusian border on Tuesday.
The newspaper’s deputy editor-in-chief, Bartosz Wieliński, was among the first to meet Poczobut at the border together with Polish special services officers. His task was to identify the journalist, who had been a correspondent for Gazeta Wyborcza in Belarus. Wieliński also described what happened behind the scenes of the negotiations.
According to him, Poczobut’s arrest and trial in Belarus became one of the main stumbling blocks in relations between the countries. Amid hybrid attacks, the Belarusian side sought to discuss improving relations and reopening border crossings, but Warsaw’s response was always the same: Poczobut.
A new round of talks began after a change of government in Poland. In the spring of 2024, a senior Polish diplomat travelled to Minsk for informal negotiations. She had a scheduled meeting with a counterpart at the Belarusian foreign ministry. During the discussion, Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhankou entered the room and asked to contact his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski. The Polish diplomat took out her phone and called Warsaw. Sikorski expressed readiness to negotiate Poczobut’s release.
However, the talks quickly stalled after Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt fled to Belarus in May 2024. Relations between Minsk and Warsaw deteriorated sharply again.
Bartosz Wieliński also writes that monk Grzegorz Gaweł was exchanged on Tuesday for an officer of Kazakhstan’s military intelligence, who had been working in Kyiv under the cover of a diplomat and military attaché. He was arrested in Poland last year on espionage charges. Diplomatic immunity did not protect the Kazakh national in Poland.
The article also recalls events in 2024, when an exchange between Russia and the United States took place, in which Poland handed over Russian spy Pavel Rubtsov. Polish special services said that Poczobut’s release was also raised at the time. The Americans passed the request to Russia, but were told to address Belarus. Relations between the administration of then US President Joe Biden and Minsk were strained. At the same time, the American side promised to include Poczobut in a future exchange. However, this did not happen. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris lost the election, and Moscow chose not to negotiate with the outgoing administration, waiting for Donald Trump to take office, after he had promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours.
Last year, negotiations intensified between the Trump administration and Alyaksandr Lukashenka, led by special envoy John Coale. Poczobut’s name consistently ranked high on the list of US demands.
According to Wieliński, Andrzej Poczobut was expected to be released at the end of October 2025. Representatives of Polish and Belarusian special services worked out details at meetings in Baku. The article’s author was informed of the planned exchange one and a half days before it was due to take place. He interrupted a trip to Yerevan and returned to Poland. However, it later emerged that Alyaksandr Lukashenka had cancelled the exchange. The official reason cited was Poland’s solidarity with Lithuania. At the time, Lithuania had closed its border with Belarus due to smuggling attempts using weather balloons, while Poland had been preparing to open two border crossings and was forced to postpone the move in solidarity with its EU neighbour and partner.
Sources told the newspaper that this was due to pressure from Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Minsk at the time. The article suggests that Moscow viewed the exchange as a sign of excessive independence by Minsk.
Relations were further strained by the relocation of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to Warsaw.
Around the same time, Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin and a Kazakh diplomat-spy were detained in Poland.
Negotiations over Poczobut’s release became multilateral. In addition to Poland, Belarus and the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan were also involved.
A Gazeta Wyborcza source in the special services said that Poland approached Russia with a proposal to persuade Belarus to release Poczobut. The Russians set additional conditions. As a result, Moldovan intelligence deputy head Alexandru Balan, who had spied for the Belarusian KGB and Russia’s GRU and was arrested in Romania, was included in the exchange. US envoys conducted negotiations in Bucharest over his transfer. Also included was Nina Popova, the wife of a GRU officer arrested in Moldova for espionage. In the end, two Moldovan intelligence officers were handed over from Russia.
Finally, Belarusian spy Uladzislau Nadzieika was exchanged for Tomasz Beroza, the article said.