Trump admin secures release of 123 political prisoners, including American citizens, from Belarus

Belarus freed 123 political prisoners, including 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and a number of American citizens, after the U.S. agreed to lift some trade sanctions on the Russian proxy state, The New York Times reported.

The release of the prisoners came after John Coale, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, met Friday and Saturday with Belarus’s autocratic president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, at his palace in Minsk, The New York Times reported. A catalyst for the diplomatic breakthrough was the U.S. government’s agreeing to remove sanctions on potash, according to BBC News. Potash is an important ingredient used for fertilizer and also a key export for the Russia-aligned Belarus, according to the outlet.

Coale noted that “as relations between the two countries normalize, more and more sanctions will be lifted,” the outlet reported.

Coale also told reporters Saturday the meetings with Lukashenko had been “very productive,” The New York Times reported.

“We talked about the future, about how to move forward on a path of rapprochement between the U.S. and Belarus to normalize relations,” Coale said, according to the outlet. “That’s our goal.”

Among the released was Maria Kolesnikova, a prominent activist and Belarusian opposition leader, the outlet reported, citing Ukrainian authorities. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy to Belarus told the outlet the list of freed prisoners also includes citizens of the U.S., Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan.

Lukashenko previously allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to station forces in Belarus. Moreover, Russia also launched from Belarus 25 missiles at targets in northern parts of Ukraine, The Guardian reported in July 2022.

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