The release of Sapieha caused a mixed reaction: “Your citizen brought us a lot of grief”

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Russian Sofya Sapega. After two years of imprisonment, the girl finally returned to her homeland and is now with her family. With this, the high-profile story about the landing of a Ryanair plane in Minsk and the fight in telegram channels against the Belarusian authorities can be considered closed. Earlier, ex-editor of the opposition channel NEXTA Roman Protasevich was released after a pardon.

“Our compatriot Sofya Sapega got a unique chance to start life anew,” Oleg Kozhemyako, Governor of Primorsky Krai, wrote in his telegram channel. According to him, Lukashenko signed the pardoning decree immediately after their meeting. On Wednesday, the Russian woman was released from penal colony No. 4 in Gomel and handed over to a delegation from Primorsky Krai.

“Thank you very much to Alexander Grigoryevich, at least for the opportunity to see my family again and return home,” Sapieha said on camera after the governor’s request to thank Lukashenka.

Gratitude to Alexander Grigorievich was also expressed in the Kremlin. “Of course, we are grateful to our Belarusian friends for the decision. Such decisions, of course, are wholly and completely in unison with our fraternal, friendly and allied nature of relations,” said Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the Russian President.

Sapieha, along with Roman Protasevich, was detained in May 2021 at the Minsk airport after a Ryanair plane flying from Athens to Vilnius was forced to land. Before the arrest, the girl studied at the European Humanities University in Vilnius and was the administrator of the opposition Telegram channel Black Book of Belarus, which published the personal data of the security forces who tortured the protesters. For this, she was sentenced to six years in prison.

Some residents of Russia and Belarus were surprised that Sapega was pardoned after Kozhemyako’s request, and he personally went to rescue the girl. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan even stated that with such zeal the governor should have met the Russian military returning from the territory of Ukraine.

However, according to political analyst Andrei Suzdaltsev, the role of the governor in this matter is certainly important, but far from decisive. “Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked for a pardon for Sapieha several times. A year ago, Lukashenka agreed, but the Russian woman continued to be imprisoned. I admit that the girl has become a kind of bargaining item between Minsk and Moscow, ”the political scientist believes.

As for Kozhemyako, according to Suzdaltsev, he has good relations with Lukashenka. And, probably, when the governor was on a visit to Minsk, he once again asked to release the Russian woman. “Lukashenko used Kozhemyako’s visit as a good reason and signed a pardon decree,” the expert suggested.

Roman Protasevich was also pardoned on May 22. Before that, the former oppositionist was sentenced to eight years in prison. However, the conditions of imprisonment of Sophia and Roman were very different. Protasevich began to actively cooperate with the authorities, and he was even given the opportunity to go to work. During this time, he married and managed to become a father. Therefore, according to Suzdaltsev, it would be incorrect to say that Roman was pardoned earlier: “The conditions of his detention were far from prison.”

Alexander Shpakovsky, a member of the commission organized by Lukashenka to develop amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, found it difficult to answer why the Belarusian president decided to pardon Sapega only now, despite numerous requests from the Russian leadership.

“In this case, I only suspect that the president acted for humanitarian reasons,” he told MK. – Before that, he pardoned the person involved in another, but related case – Roman Protasevich. Perhaps that is why he decided to pardon Sapieha as well.

But personally, I do not support this goodwill gesture. Too much grief has been brought to us by your citizen, who published the data of law enforcement officers and civil servants. She exerted psychological pressure on their families and loved ones. I would like to see more remorse on her part.

– Do you think that in the foreseeable future one more gesture of goodwill can be expected in relation to other detainees, for example, Maria Kolesnikova?

– And who is this? We don’t remember them anymore. But if you are interested, then there is a procedure. And if this, as you said, Kolesnikova writes a petition, then it will be considered and some decision will also be made.