{"id":38284,"date":"2025-11-19T05:16:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=38284"},"modified":"2025-11-19T05:16:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T05:16:45","slug":"belarus-trying-to-fool-trump-into-normalising-ties-says-opposition-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=38284","title":{"rendered":"Belarus trying to \u2018fool\u2019 Trump into normalising ties, says opposition leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=e87cd013-cc4b-447b-8dd1-b68c99f00a35&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The Trump administration should resist the \u201cmisperception\u201d that the authoritarian leader of Belarus will break with the Kremlin as the US presses Minsk to free political prisoners in return for sanctions relief, the Belarusian opposition leader has said.<\/p>\n<p>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the Financial Times that she supported Washington\u2019s \u201chumanitarian\u201d efforts on political prisoners, but it was \u201cabsolutely wrong\u201d to think Alexander Lukashenko would turn away from Russia. He was trying to \u201cfool\u201d the US, she added.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201c<\/em>Our concern is that Lukashenko is selling this communication with the Americans as normalisation or legitimisation,\u2019\u2019 she said in an interview. <\/p>\n<p>Tsikhanouskaya said there was no way Lukashenko would turn his back on Putin, even if he was presenting himself as a possible intermediary for talks between Moscow and Washington to end the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/stream\/585f53fc-b27a-3aee-83cd-82e8ef4cd59b\" title=\"\" data-trackable=\"link\">Belarus<\/a> has been one of the main supporters of Putin\u2019s war, acting as a launch pad for the invasion, and later hosting Russian nuclear weapons and allowing drones to fly over Belarusian territory into Nato airspace. Lithuania says tobacco smuggling balloons that float across the border from Belarus causing disruption to air traffic are \u201chybrid attacks\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Lukashenko\u2019s repression of his domestic opponents and support for the war, President Donald Trump has set out to woo the Belarusian dictator, describing him last week as \u201chighly respected\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Washington lifted some sanctions on the Belarusian airline Belavia after Lukashenko released 52 political prisoners, including Sergei Tsikhanouski, former opposition leader and Tsikhanouskaya\u2019s husband. <\/p>\n<p>US envoy John Coale said at the time Washington was seeking to normalise relations with Minsk and was \u201cready to do everything to make this happen\u201d. Coale is leading a further attempt to persuade Lukashenko to release more prisoners in return for sanctions relief. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"zzcengss\" class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A76bdc7cc-ed87-4786-87f7-08bb6c25ef41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=1 1x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A76bdc7cc-ed87-4786-87f7-08bb6c25ef41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=2 2x,https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/ftcms%3A76bdc7cc-ed87-4786-87f7-08bb6c25ef41?source=next-article&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;quality=highest&amp;width=700&amp;dpr=3 3x\" width=\"2202\" height=\"1468\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption o3-editorial-typography-caption\"><span>Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and her husband Sergei Tsikhanouski at a press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, in June after his release from a Belarusian prison<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Petras Malukas\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tsikhanouskaya said she was in close contact with US officials and \u201cwe appreciate that they\u2019re not doing anything behind our backs\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>The Belarusian leader was \u201cpaying his debts\u201d to his Russian counterpart, she said, after Moscow intervened to prop up Lukashenko\u2019s rule and help him crush mass demonstrations over his rigging of the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLukashenko is the most pro-Russian person in Belarus,\u201d Tsikhanouskaya said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s impossible to split them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While commending efforts to secure the release of prisoners, she said for every one freed \u201ctwice more are detained, like a revolving door in an endless process\u201d. It was important, she said, that the US did not pay too high a price in terms of sanctions relief and diplomatic rapprochement to obtain their freedom.<\/p>\n<p>She urged European capitals to \u201chold their cards for a bigger game\u201d of securing \u201cirreversible changes\u201d in Belarus.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights groups say more than 1,200 political prisoners remain in jail in Belarus and arrests are continuing. <\/p>\n<p>After five years of exile in Lithuania, Tsikhanouskaya insisted her opposition movement remained relevant for Belarusians despite Lukashenko\u2019s grip on power. <\/p>\n<aside aria-labelledby=\"aside-label\" class=\"n-content-recommended--single-story n-content-recommended--inset\" data-component=\"recommended\">\n<p class=\"n-content-recommended__title o3-type-body-highlight\">Recommended<\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser o-teaser--article o-teaser--small o-teaser--stacked o-teaser--has-image js-teaser\" data-id=\"32ae53ac-b4ee-484d-bec8-c6d303547456\">\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-container js-teaser-image-container\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/32ae53ac-b4ee-484d-bec8-c6d303547456\" data-trackable=\"image-link\" data-trackable-context-story-link=\"image-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"o-teaser__image-placeholder\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2048\/1152\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"o-teaser__image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ft.com%2Fv3%2Fimage%2Fraw%2Fhttps%253A%252F%252Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%252Fproduction%252Fd6aec539-b122-4ea9-9ed1-ae56c79e06ab.jpg%3Fsource%3Dnext-article%26fit%3Dscale-down%26quality%3Dhighest%26width%3D700%26dpr%3D1?source=next&amp;fit=scale-down&amp;dpr=2&amp;width=240\" alt=\"Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, right, has long relied on Russian President Vladimir Putin to cement his power\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>She said Lithuanian officials were considering cutting the personal security she had received since fleeing there, though no final decision had been made. She added that she and her team continued to face repeated death threats from Belarusian security services.<\/p>\n<p>Her strategy was to prepare for a short \u201cmoment of turbulence\u201d when the 71-year-old Lukashenko\u2019s authority could be challenged and Russia would be too weakened by its war in Ukraine to prop him up.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the opposition is trying to foment dissent among Belarus\u2019s governing elite and stir up Lukashenko\u2019s fear of a possible military coup to destabilise his regime. <\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting by Anastasia Stognei<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/e87cd013-cc4b-447b-8dd1-b68c99f00a35\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}