Belarus over the weekend freed its most prominent political prisoner, Alexander Kazulin, in a move welcomed by the EU, as Europe's "last dictatorship" tries to improve its image in the west.
The opposition leader walked out of the Vitba 3 jail on Saturday (16 August) after serving over two years of a five-and-a-half year sentence, with Belarus officials saying he has been granted a presidential pardon.
"We don't know what has happened and under what conditions he has been released...
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.