{"id":6464,"date":"2025-02-15T22:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T22:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/a-quick-quiet-trip-to-belarus-signals-a-turn-in-u-s-policy\/"},"modified":"2025-02-15T22:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T22:22:10","slug":"a-quick-quiet-trip-to-belarus-signals-a-turn-in-u-s-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/a-quick-quiet-trip-to-belarus-signals-a-turn-in-u-s-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick, Quiet Trip to Belarus Signals a Turn in U.S. Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The senior American diplomat slipped quietly into Belarus, a police state run by a strongman reviled for decades in the West, traveling by car across the border for meetings with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko and the head of his KGB security apparatus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was Mr. Lukashenko\u2019s first meeting with a senior State Department official in five years, and the start of what could be a highly consequential thawing of frozen relations between the United States and Russia\u2019s closest ally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The below-the-radar American visit to Minsk, the Belarusian capital, on Wednesday came just a day after President Trump had a long telephone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Both events signaled Washington\u2019s departure from a yearslong policy of trying to isolate leaders out of favor in the West because of their repressive policies and the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After talks with Mr. Lukashenko, Christopher W. Smith, a deputy assistant secretary of state, and two other American officials drove to a village near the border with Lithuania. There, courtesy of the Belarusian KGB, three people who had been jailed \u2014 an American and two Belarusian political prisoners \u2014 were waiting to be picked up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As darkness fell, the Americans and the freed prisoners drove back across the border to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Speaking outside the U.S. Embassy there on Wednesday evening, Mr. Smith hailed the successful completion of what he called \u201ca special operation,\u201d describing the prisoners\u2019 release as a \u201chuge win and a response to President Trump\u2019s peace through strength agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The next step, Mr. Smith told a gathering of Western diplomats on Thursday in Vilnius, according to people who attended, is a possible grand bargain under which Mr. Lukashenko would release a slew of political prisoners, including prominent ones. In return, the United States would relax sanctions on Belarusian banks and exports of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/30\/world\/europe\/lithuania-belarus-potash.html\" title=\"\">potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer<\/a>, of which Belarus is a major producer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The people who relayed Mr. Smith\u2019s account of his talks in Minsk spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential meeting. Mr. Smith himself has not publicly disclosed whom he met with or what was discussed, and the State Department did not respond to questions about those details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Belarus, which usually gloats over any sign that it is breaking out of its isolation, has also been mostly silent, though an anchor on state television, Igor Tur, introduced a note of mystery, suggesting that Mr. Smith was not the real leader of the American delegation and that a more senior official also took part.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Franak Viacorka, the chief of staff to the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/08\/11\/world\/europe\/belarus-election-Svetlana-Tikhanovskaya.html\" title=\"\">exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya<\/a>, who has long called for toughening of sanctions, said: \u201cWe are very grateful to President Trump that he managed to move things forward.\u201d But, he added, sanctions should be eased only when \u201cLukashenko stops repression and new arrests\u201d and \u201creleases all political prisoners, including top figures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Viasna, a human rights group that keeps <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/prisoners.spring96.org\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a tally of political prisoners in Belarus<\/a>, put their number this week at 1,226. Mr. Lukashenko has in recent months released more than 200 of them, including two Americans set free since Mr. Trump took office, but opposition activists say that even more people have been arrested during the same period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tatyana Khomich, a sister of one of Belarus\u2019s <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/09\/08\/world\/europe\/belarus-maria-kolesnikova.html\" title=\"\">most prominent political prisoners, Maria Kolesnikova<\/a>, welcomed the American outreach to Mr. Lukashenko. \u201cThe past pressure strategy has failed to release political prisoners, halt repression or change the regime\u2019s behavior,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Smith also steered Belarus policy during the Biden administration, and started tentative discussions last year with U.S. allies about easing sanctions, but until this week he had never traveled to Minsk to meet Mr. Lukashenko.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That \u201cdirect diplomatic approach could yield concrete results, including the release of individual prisoners or even a broader amnesty,\u201d Ms. Khomich said, while loosening Belarus\u2019s dependence on Russia and \u201cpreserving some leverage for the U.S. and E.U.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An American-led drive to isolate and bankrupt Mr. Lukashenko under the Biden administration produced a raft of Western penalties. The sanctions on potash cut an important economic lifeline for the Belarusian ruler but handed a windfall to Russia, another big producer, as global prices spiked. Some Belarusian potash continued to reach global markets via Russia, instead of by the previous, cheaper route through Lithuania.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Artyom Shraibman, a political analyst who fled Belarus after a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/11\/14\/world\/europe\/belarus-lukashenko-protests-crackdown.html\" title=\"\">brutal crackdown<\/a> on protests in 2020, said Western sanctions had little impact because of Russia\u2019s expansive support for Mr. Lukashenko. But a release of prisoners in return for relaxing sanctions, he said, would \u201cmean they have finally been used with some effect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis would be definitely a positive development for the prisoners themselves, their families \u2014 and potentially for solving broader issues of the relationship\u201d between Belarus and the West, said Mr. Shraibman, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">How to deal with Mr. Lukashenko has vexed Western policymakers for decades. A master at maneuvering between East and West, and silencing his critics at home, he took power in 1994 and has won seven increasingly dubious elections in a row, most recently in January, when he claimed 87 percent of the vote, his biggest landslide yet.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2005, the U.S. secretary of state at the time, Condoleezza Rice, denounced Belarus as the \u201clast true remaining dictatorship in the heart of Europe\u201d \u2014 though that was before Mr. Putin consolidated his autocratic control of Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dispirited by the longevity of Mr. Lukashenko, now 70, his exiled opponents, like Mr. Putin\u2019s, have often sought solace in rumors that he was seriously ill. But Mr. Smith, briefing Western diplomats in Vilnius, reported that Mr. Lukashenko showed no sign of ill health and seemed confident and in full control, several of those who attended said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Beginning a decade ago, efforts to isolate Mr. Lukashenko gave way for a time to engagement, amid signs that Belarus wanted to avoid becoming too dependent on Moscow, the country\u2019s increasingly overbearing neighbor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While heavily reliant on Russia for deliveries of cheap oil, which he needed to keep his faltering economy afloat, Mr. Lukashenko resisted pressure from Mr. Putin to fully implement a 1990s agreement to form a \u201cunion state\u201d that he feared would reduce Belarus to a province of Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-9\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lukashenko <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/09\/14\/world\/europe\/belarus-russia-lukashenko-putin.html\" title=\"\">appealed to Mr. Putin<\/a>, who rushed in security advisers to help restore control. Vicious repression followed, with mass arrests and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/press-release\/2020\/08\/belarus-mounting-evidence-of-a-campaign-of-widespread-torture-of-peaceful-protesters\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">torture of detainees<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Less than a year and a half later, Mr. Lukashenko allowed Russia to use his country as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with an abortive thrust south from Belarus toward Kyiv.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-10\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Smith, according to diplomats who attended his briefing, said the primary U.S. goal was to secure freedom for more political prisoners. He said he had asked Mr. Lukashenko whether he was ready to scale back repression and was assured that he was. Another important aim, Mr. Smith told the diplomats, is to give Mr. Lukashenko some breathing room outside Russia\u2019s orbit of influence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Piotr Krawczyk, a former head of Poland\u2019s foreign intelligence service who worked with the first Trump administration on loosening Russia\u2019s grip on Belarus, said Belarus was \u201cpart of a wider American approach toward Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The United States is \u201cconfronting Russia in Ukraine, in Africa, in the oil and gas sector, and in several other strategic areas,\u201d he said. \u201cNegotiating with Belarus creates additional leverage for the U.S. to signal to Russia that they should be more attentive to American arguments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Shraibman, the exiled analyst, said a big question now was how the Kremlin would react to any rapprochement between Belarus and the West. Many Russian officials \u201cwould likely panic at the prospect,\u201d he said, but \u201cthere is no quick or easy way for Belarus to distance itself from Russia given Moscow\u2019s economic dominance over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He added that it was unlikely that President Trump \u201chas any particular interest in, understanding of or a plan for Belarus.\u201d Even so, he said, the \u201cTrump factor certainly creates some momentum, as everyone, including Lukashenko, tries to impress the U.S. president and compete for his attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     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the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[602,563,103,475,114,151,146,104,2533,2535,601,2534,1393,476,605,1284,2532,608,607,113,109,606],"class_list":["post-6464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aleksandr-g","tag-belarus","tag-biden","tag-demonstrations","tag-donald-j","tag-europe","tag-human-rights-and-human-rights-violations","tag-joseph-r-jr","tag-kolesnikova","tag-lithuania","tag-lukashenko","tag-maria","tag-political-prisoners","tag-protests-and-riots","tag-putin","tag-state-department","tag-state-security-committee-kgb-belarus","tag-svetlana","tag-tikhanovskaya","tag-trump","tag-united-states-international-relations","tag-vladimir-v"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - 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