US envoy in Belarus for talks with longtime leader

• Minsk said Trump’s envoy John Coale was in Minsk for “negotiations” with Lukashenko.
• Previous such visits have led to prisoner releases

WARSAW: A US envoy was in Minsk for talks with longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko Friday, video from state media showed, as Washington pushes for prisoner releases in the repressive Moscow-allied country.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has waged a massive crackdown in Belarus since 2020 protests against his rule, with more than 1,000 people still in prison.

Minsk said US President Donald Trump’s envoy John Coale was in Minsk for “negotiations” with Lukashenko. Previous such visits have led to prisoner releases.

“Negotiations have started today, they will continue tomorrow,” a Telegram channel run by Lukashenko’s team said. It published a video of Lukashenko greeting the US official.

In September, Belarus released dozens of political prisoners in a US deal, in exchange for the easing of some sanctions. The Viasna rights group says Belarus currently has 1,227 political prisoners.

These include Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, protest leader Maria Kolesnikova and Lukashenko challenger Viktor Babaryko — held largely incommunicado since 2023. Activists, journalists and ordinary people who participated in or backed the protests are among those behind bars.

In September, Minsk had released veteran regime opponent Mikola Statkevich, but he refused to leave for Lithuania and is back in jail. The crackdown in Belarus has forced hundreds of thousands into exile.