Journalist Shuster: interview with Łukašenka was Minsk’s persistent overture

August 8, Pozirk. Simon Shuster, a journalist for Time Magazine, said Minsk had persistently sought to arrange his interview with Alaksandar Łukašenka, which was recorded on July 25 and published on August 8.

“Rarely have the overtures been as persistent as the ones that reached me this spring from the allies of Alexander Lukashenko [Alaksandar Łukašenka], the dictator of Belarus,” he says in his account.

“It was not immediately clear what the intermediaries wanted,” the correspondent stated. “I had never been to Belarus or written much about it, though my coverage of its neighbors, Russia and Ukraine, had given me a grasp of Łukašenka’s story.

In Europe he holds the dubious honor of clinging to power longer than any other sitting leader by far, an astonishing 31 years without pause, which means most of the nine million people in his landlocked country have never known another ruler in their adult lives,” Shuster said.

He called the Łukašenka regime one of the most repressive and isolated in the world; under its current government, Belarus has “terrible relations and almost no trade with four out of its five neighbors, and a near-total dependence on the fifth: Russia.”

The journalist said it wasn’t an obvious decision for him to take a call from a Łukašenka official who appeared relatively inexperienced in dealing with Western media. A few minutes into their conversation, the official asked how much an interview with The Time would cost and, based on his tone, seemed puzzled to learn that the process couldn’t involve any kind of bribe.

The official replied, “Just checking, so we avoid any misunderstandings later on.” After several calls and messages, they agreed on the terms of the interview: it would take place in Minsk, with no pre-arranged questions or topics for discussion. Łukašenka’s motives became clear later.

According to Shuster, at the end of the interview, Łukašenka himself explained why he was so eager to talk to The Time.

“His effort with Putin to arrange a peace on favorable terms for the Russians had made so much headway with the Americans. It helped win so much extra time for the Russian military to continue its summer offensive in Ukraine. But now, at the crucial moment, [US President Donald] Trump had begun to take a harder line, threatening to impose tariffs on any country that buys Russian oil, starting with India and moving on to China and Turkey,” the reporter said.

He quoted Łukašenka as telling him: “I hope you will shake up public opinion in the United States of America. It’ll all work out. Just give Trump a push.”

Politics

Politics

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