Poczobut said years of open visa policies in Poland and Lithuania allowed Belarusians to see that economic prosperity and political freedom could coexist. He argued that people-to-people ties could help create conditions for democratic change rather than deepen the country’s isolation. His comments come after his April 28 release from a Belarusian prison in a multinational exchange following five years in detention. Poczobut had been sentenced to eight years in a case condemned as politically motivated. Belarus remains under Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule and aligned with Russia. Human rights group Viasna reported at least 868 political prisoners in Belarus in mid-July. “There should be an offer for Belarusian society,” Poczobut said, warning that the absence of a common Western policy had weakened its influence over Belarus’s future.