A six-hour Minsk meeting, an unexpected toast, and a conversation about weight-loss medicine opened an unusual channel between Washington and Minsk.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy John Coale described how he established a rapport with self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko through humor, informal conversation, and vodka. According to Coale, their personal relationship helped secure agreements to release more than 500 Belarusian political prisoners in exchange for easing U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n
Humor is an immensely powerful weapon. If you can make the person you\u2019re talking to laugh, you\u2019re already halfway there, and you\u2019re no longer seen as a threat.<\/p>\n
\u2013 John Coale<\/p>\n
How Coale Built a Relationship with Lukashenko<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old Coale said that during his trips to Minsk, he used witty remarks, vulgar jokes, alcohol, and even weight-loss advice. In his view, this approach helped ease tensions during negotiations and made Lukashenko an unofficial channel of communication between the United States and Russia.<\/p>\n
Coale recalled that about 20 minutes into their first meeting, Lukashenko began harshly criticizing European leaders who were trying to isolate him. To lighten the mood, the American envoy replied that they were \u201ca bunch of cowards,\u201d using a more vulgar expression during the conversation.<\/p>\n
According to Coale, Lukashenko took a liking to him after that, although European politicians did not share that assessment.<\/p>\n
During a subsequent dinner, Coale drank two shots of vodka produced by Lukashenko and discreetly poured the rest of the alcohol onto the floor so that he could remain sober during the negotiations. After the toasts, the Belarusian leader agreed to release one more American than had previously been agreed.<\/p>\n
Because I like you.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Alexander Lukashenko<\/p>\n
Release of Political Prisoners in Belarus<\/p>\n
In June 2025, Coale and Keith Kellogg, the special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, held more than six hours of talks with Lukashenko in Minsk. Among other things, they discussed the weight-loss drug Zepbound.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the meeting, Lukashenko released 14 opposition figures. Among them was the husband of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.<\/p>\n
After learning about the release during a private dinner with Coale and his wife, Greta Van Susteren, Donald Trump insisted on speaking with Lukashenko by phone. The U.S. president called the Belarusian leader en route to a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska and said that he hoped to host Lukashenko at the White House one day.<\/p>\n
Coale also said that he had discussed expanding his mission with Trump. The proposal would allow him to work on securing the release of political prisoners anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n
Possible Exchange of Civilian Prisoners<\/p>\n
According to Coale, he was approached by Russian Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov, who asked him to help arrange an exchange of civilian prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n
To implement the initiative, the special envoy has already secured financial guarantees from two organizations prepared to help house the people who are released. At the same time, Coale plans to first finish his work on securing the release of the remaining political prisoners in Belarus.<\/p>\n
Criticism of the Agreements with Lukashenko<\/p>\n
Activists have criticized Coale\u2019s actions. They believe that such agreements effectively reward Belarus\u2019s corrupt authoritarian government while repression continues in the country.<\/p>\n
Critics say that Coale is effectively rewarding Belarus\u2019s corrupt authoritarian government. Activists call the Belarusian judicial system a \u201cconveyor belt\u201d because new political prisoners are jailed while others are released. They argue that this practice turns people\u2019s freedom into a bargaining chip and \u201cencourages human trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Critics of the agreements<\/p>\n
John Coale\u2019s Legal Career<\/p>\n
Before entering diplomacy, John Coale worked as a lawyer. In 1984, he represented victims of the gas leak in Bhopal, India. In 1997, Coale reached a landmark $386 billion settlement with tobacco companies.<\/p>\n
After the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Coale became Donald Trump\u2019s lawyer on the advice of Senator Lindsey Graham. He secured tens of millions of dollars in compensation from Meta, YouTube, and X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A six-hour Minsk meeting, an unexpected toast, and a conversation about weight-loss medicine opened an unusual channel between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[70,387,131,95,2234,2235,2236],"class_list":["post-5747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alexander-lukashenko","tag-belarus-political-prisoners","tag-john-coale","tag-news","tag-political-prisoner-releases","tag-trump-envoy","tag-us-belarus-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/belarus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}