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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Special envoy of the US President Donald Trump, John Koole? Cole? 15 met in Minsk with Alexander Lukashenko, who calls himself the president of Belarus, in September. Along with him arrived from the United States the State Department official Christopher Panico and the advisor on strategic communications of the Office of the U.S. Special Envoys for Ukraine and Belarus, the Radyo Svaboda reported.
Footage from the meeting was published by the Lukashenko-adjacent Telegram channel "Pool of the First"; the site of the self-styled leader quotes from the conversation, which lasted three hours.
"I must tell you, with great interest the society perceives your visits. Well, neighbors and other leaders of states are closely watching our meeting," Lukashenko said to the interlocutor.
Koole? Cole? in response conveyed greetings from Trump and said that the U.S. president "fully supports" the work of the negotiators.
Lukashenko also tried to persuade Koole? Cole? that there are no political prisoners in Belarus, and urged the United States to "strictly adhere to" the agreements reached.
"There are no political prisoners in Belarus, because there is no such article in our legislation," he insisted. "Our defectors spread this theme in the West and, from my information, persuaded you that we release someone here, but by continuing repression, we detain twice as many people in this place. I want to tell you publicly that this is absolute falsehood."
Joining Lukashenko in the talks were Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchin, the head of the KGB Ivan Tertel, and Belarus’s permanent representative to the UN Valentin Rybakov. Turchin raised the issue of frozen $43 million of "Belaruskali" on the accounts of the American Citibank.
"I completely, absolutely support your demands. In fact, you are absolutely right. This money should be unfrozen and returned. We have asked the bank to unfreeze these funds," Koole? Cole? replied.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item ""Сусіди уважно стежать". Спецпосланник Трампа Коул приїхав до Лукашенка. Про що говорили". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Gordon.
