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BIALYSTOK: Having missed almost four years of her sons' lives while incarcerated in a Belarusian prison, Irina Schastnaya still wants to zip up the coat of 14 years, struggling to digest the height of his absence in his absence.
The German was 10 when security services burst into their home in Minsk, raiding the apartment and arresting his mother in front of him for defying authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenkos.
I managed to tell him: German don't worry, everything will be fine, she told AFP, remembering the morning in November 2020 that changed our lives forever.
His arrest was just a huge crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Lukashenko after tens of thousands protested his 2020 election victory, claiming widespread fraud.
In power since 1994, Moscow's ally is expected to secure another term in power this weekend in an election with no real competition.
The Viasna Rights Group says Belarus currently has 1,256 political prisoners and all opposition leaders are in prison or in exile.
Days after Schastnayas' 2020 arrest, the Germans' father fled the country with the boy settling in kyiv, before leaving for Poland, as it became clear that Russia might invade Ukraine.
Schastnaya was sentenced to four years for publishing a telegram channel critical of the government.
Sent to penal colony number four in the city of Gomel, she was made to sew military and construction uniforms at the prison factory.
But she spent most of the time thinking about German.
They were allowed one video call per month under the supervision of a prison officer.
He didn't like those calls, she said. He could literally see the person listening in the frame.
They were reunited in September 2024, when Schastnaya was released and fled Belarus to join her family in Poland. Bialystok near Belarus and long has a hub for exiles.
When I opened the door, I saw this big guy, she told AFP, still visibly shaken.
It's like heaven and earth. It's not the same mothering…he was 10 when I was arrested, he always held my hand when we walked down the street.
Like the other former prisoners AFP spoke to, Schastnaya now has one wish: to get those who remain behind bars out by any means possible and impossible.

Schastnaya says her son has adapted to life in Poland.
But she didn't do it.
She often goes to the border of neighboring Belarus, just to take a look.
A few months ago, she was in prison, sleeping on the top bunk in a room with about 30 women.
Like all political prisoners, his uniform and bed were marked with a yellow tag, signifying a tendency toward extremism and other destructive activities, she said.
After being released, she decided to flee, fearing she would not be free for long or might be banned from leaving.
She is encouraged by a wave of pre-election pardons at home, hoping more will come.
We need to get them out in whatever way we can, she said.
Some people haven't seen their children for years.

In Poland, Gdansk, former political prisoner Kristina Cherenkova, 34, looked through information about those who have recently been pardoned.
Authorities are not releasing names, but information is getting out through parents and lawyers.
A wedding decorator, Cherenkova participated in the 2020 protests in her small town of Mazyr and refused to leave Belarus when the crackdown began.
She was finally arrested in 2022 for a social media post criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which she launched partly from Belarusian territory.
Cherenkova also ended up in Gomel prison, before being released last year.
Around 10% of women there are political prisoners, she estimated.
I'm glad to see some of the names published. But there are a lot of people left, a lot of friends.
While in prison, she said she witnessed pardons being delayed by the slow pace of the Soviet bureaucracy.
Daria Afanasyeva, a Belarusian feminist living in Warsaw who was released last year, also said everything should be done to secure the freedom of political prisoners, including talks with the regime.
It's not just one person in prison, it's their entire family, the pink-haired activist said, adding that many feel intense guilt for loved ones suffering on the outside.
Arrested in 2021, Afanasyeva said solidarity among political prisoners helped her get through her 2.5-year sentence.
Thanks to the KGB for getting me a best friend, she joked.
But the ordeal of prison still consumes his life.
There is snow in Warsaw, people are happy… but I just think that if there is snow in the prison, the girls there are wiped out.