Belarus' authoritarian leader meets US envoy to push for lifting sanctions

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko met with a U.S. envoy on Tuesday to push for the lifting of the remaining U.S. sanctions against his country.

Speaking at a meeting with John Coale, the U.S. special envoy for Belarus, Lukashenko said that “we have reached quite a few agreements related to our economic ties.” He urged Washington to help unblock some Belarusian assets he said were “stuck in Citibank.”

Since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Lukashenko has released hundreds of political prisoners in a series of U.S.-mediated deals that also lifted some U.S. sanctions.

Speaking before the meeting with Coale, Lukashenko said that he's open for discussing “a deal big or small.” Lukashenko also said that he would like to discuss the prospects for lifting more U.S. sanctions, exporting Belarusian fertilizers to the U.S.

As part of a deal in March that Washington helped broker, Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners, while the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions from two Belarusian state banks and the country’s Finance Ministry, and to remove the top Belarusian potash producers from a sanctions list.

Another deal in April released prominent journalist Andrzej Poczobut in a swap with Poland that saw a total of 10 people freed.

Lukashenko has governed the nation of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries — both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Lukashenko’s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures fled the country or were imprisoned.

Five years after the mass demonstrations, Lukashenko won a seventh term last year in an election that the opposition called a farce.

The Belarusian opposition has welcomed Coale's efforts as an important humanitarian mission, but emphasized that Lukashenko's government has jailed more political prisoners.

Belarus still has 912 political prisoners, including 20 journalists, according to the Viasna human rights center.

“Harsh political repressions continue in the country, and the regime employs a ‘revolving door’ policy, with new political prisoners constantly put behind bars,” Pavel Sapelka, a lawyer with Viasna, told The Associated Press. “Lukashenko treats political prisoners like commodities to be traded for the lifting of sanctions, yet the repressive nature of the regime remains unchanged.”

Speaking at a meeting with Coale, Lukashenko denied that Belarus has any political prisoners.

“There is no need for us to persecute anyone for political reasons today,” Lukashenko said. “The fugitives are spreading a narrative in the West ... that while we are releasing some people, we are continuing repressions and detaining twice as many in their place. That is absolutely untrue!”

Observers say that contacts with the U.S. has given Lukashenko an opportunity to ease international isolation.

“Lukashenko is a very experienced politician, and contacts with the U.S. will allow him not only to reduce his total dependence on the Kremlin, but also to return to the international stage and seek an easing of the European Union sanctions, which are hitting the Belarusian economy much harder,” political analyst Valery Karbalevich told the AP.

A U.N. group of experts on the situation in Belarus said in a report released Tuesday that Belarusian authorities were using the country’s criminal justice system as an instrument of repression, systematically targeting and persecuting government opponents.

“The international community must not look away,” expert Susan Bazilli said. “Those responsible for serious human rights violations must know that impunity is not a permanent shield, and victims must know that their rights have not been forgotten.”