August 22, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has told journalists today that he discussed jailed dissidents in a phone call with US President Donald Trump one week ago, stressing that exiled opposition is not part of these talks.
The Belarusian ruler indicated that Minsk has no plan for handling a mass release of political prisoners and suggested the United States should “take” them.
“Do you want one and a half or two thousand [people] as they count there? Take them to your country,” the state-run media quoted him as saying. “[Westerners cannot] expect that we will release thugs who burned and blew things up. . . We will release them, and they will wage war against us again? Society won’t support me.”
According to Trump’s earlier statement, the purpose of the August 15 call was to thank Łukašenka for freeing 16 prisoners recently. “We are also discussing the release of 1,300 additional prisoners. Our conversation was a very good one,” the US president said.
Experts noted that previous Washington contacts with Minsk have always resulted in the release of regime critics.
Belarusian officials say that Minsk has been engaged in talks with Washington since mid-2024. Since then, the Belarusian ruler has pardoned more than 300 imprisoned regime critics.
