Belarus released an American woman who had been detained on “good will” last month.

Belarus “unilaterally” frees US secretary of state Marco Rubio The Kremlin-aligned country announced Sunday that it was holding a rigged election to produce a strongman. President Alexander Lukashenko Another time in his three decades in power.

Rubio’s post on the X social network identified the American citizen as Anastasia Neufer. He said she was arrested during former President Joe Biden’s tenure, but did not say when or why.

Rubio’s statement came in the wake of a wave of prisoners released by Lukashenko, who has often been labeled “Europe’s last dictator”. Belarus’ oldest human rights organization Vyasna says more than 1,250 people are in prison for protesting against the authorities.

Opponents of Lukashenko, many of whom are in prison or exile for his relentless crackdown on dissent and free speech, called Sunday’s election a sham. In the year The 2020 election sparked months of unprecedented public protests. History of Belarus.

The US State Department said later on Sunday that Nuhfer had been arrested in early December 2024. Earlier this month, a consular officer from Washington said he was rarely allowed access to an American prisoner in Belarus.

A former senior Belarusian diplomat told the AP that Nuhfer’s arrest was related to the 2020 protests, though he did not provide specifics. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns, said Lukashenko himself offered to release the US citizen “for good will” and refused to release any Belarusian dissidents and rights activists.

Nuhfer’s release surprised the public and even Belarusian activists. Her name has not been released publicly and she is not listed on the list of political prisoners.

Pavel Sapelka of Vyasna’s rights group said he and his colleagues were unaware of her arrest or her condition.

Lukashenko’s support for the war in Ukraine has led to Belarus’ severing of relations with the US and the European Union, ending the Kremlin’s gambit in trying to get more subsidies from the West.

But Artyim Shreibman, a Belarus expert at the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center, predicted that after the election, Minsk may try to ease its overall dependence on Russia by seeking to reach out to the West again.

“Lukashenko’s temporary goal is to use the election to confirm his legitimacy and try to start a dialogue with the West at least to ease the sanctions,” Schreibman said.

It was not clear what kind of deal Minsk was asking for the release of the US citizen.