Belarus frees Nobel Prize winner, opposition figure as US lifts sanctions

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Belarus freed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, key opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova and dozens of other political prisoners on Saturday, capping two days of talks with Washington aimed at improving ties and getting crippling U.S. sanctions lifted on a key Belarusian agricultural export. President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 123 prisoners, Belarus’ state news agency, Belta, reported. In exchange, the U.S. said it was lifting sanctions on the Eastern European country's potash sector, A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been repeatedly sanctioned by the West for its crackdown on human rights and f