Latest news with #politicalprisoners
The Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Iran planning to execute 30,000 in repeat of horror 1988 ‘massacre' as part of desperate crackdown, insiders fear
IRAN'S merciless regime is plotting to kill tens of thousands of prisoners in a repeat of the 1988 massacre, insiders fear. Rattled supreme leader Ali Khamenei has ordered a surge in executions - turning hangings into public spectacles in a chilling warning to dissidents. 9 9 9 It comes as callous mullahs yesterday hanged two political prisoners who had been jailed on trumped-up charges. Mehdi Hassani, 48, and Behrouz Ehsani, 70, were killed in cold blood for daring to oppose the barbaric regime they were forced to live under. Earlier this year, The Sun shared a haunting voice message from dad-of-three Hassani as he lambasted the cruelty of mullahs. Ehsani meanwhile bravely vowed he was "ready" to sacrifice his life in the ongoing fight for freedom for the Iranian people. Iran has repeatedly unleashed lethal force on its own people - especially at times of crisis - in a sickening bid to stamp out rebellion. Glaring vulnerabilities in the regime's grip on power have been exposed after Israel and the US launched a monumental effort to destroy its nuclear threat. Executions and arrests are weaponised to scare dissidents, and it is feared panicked Ayatollah Khamenei is planning a similar plot to the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. The regime was also in turmoil that year after accepting a ceasefire with Iraq. Now, death sentences against those affiliated with the main democratic opposition, the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), are being expedited as Khamenei scrambles for control. Chillingly, state-run Fars News Agency - a mouthpiece of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - this month issued a public call to repeat 1998's inhumane massacre as the regime fears for its survival. British politicians and leading human rights lawyers have urged the UK government to intervene to prevent such an atrocity. Alongside the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), they also criticised the focus on Tehran's nuclear programme, warning that it has overshadowed the worsening human rights crisis. Baroness O'Loan DBE said: "Those threatening our national security are the same individuals planning atrocities in Iran's prisons. So, we must act, now." Dowlat Nowrouzi, the NCRI's UK representative, told The Sun: "The international community's failure to hold the regime accountable for its atrocities, including crimes against humanity and genocide, has allowed the regime to enjoy impunity. "It is long overdue to hold Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, and others accountable for committing these crimes. It comes as one of Iran's longest-serving political prisoners has laid bare the dire situation in a handwritten letter shared with The Sun. Saeed Masouri, who has spent 25 years behind bars, was forcibly dragged from his cell Qezelhessar Prison to solitary confinement. More than 100 armed guards raided the ward Masouri was on, beating prisoners before hauling them across the floor with handcuffs and leg shackles and bags over their heads. Masouri has been exiled to the notorious Zahedan Prison - just days after penning a haunting letter warning a massacre is looming. 9 9 9 9 He wrote: "Just as it happened in 1988, today we fear that the same path is being repeated, albeit with different language and methods. "Back then, it was called the 'Death Committee'; today, it is 'Fire at discretion'. "But this widespread repression and intensification of executions are not signs of strength—they are admissions of the regime's helplessness in the face of truth and the will of the people. "Likewise, this so-called 'fire at discretion' is nothing but an attempt to conceal the depth of infiltration, decay, and structural collapse within the ruling system—failures they now seek to compensate for by exacting revenge on the people of Iran and their prisoners." All contact between political prisoners and their families has now been cut off. Ms Nowrouzi added: "The assault on Mr. Masouri is not an isolated incident. "It is part of a broader campaign of escalating executions, arbitrary detentions, and systematic repression. "The regime, emboldened by decades of impunity and inaction, is now openly signaling its intent to repeat the horrors of 1988. "As Mr. Masouri warned in his message from prison, 'a crime is in progress,' and the world must not remain silent." Iran's calculating mullahs meanwhile are refusing to hand the bodies of slain Ehsani and Hassani back to their grieving families. How Iran is stifling critics after defeat to Israel by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) TYRANNICAL leaders in Iran have demanded citizens act as undercover informants to turn in anyone who dares oppose the regime, insiders say. Panicked mullahs have also ordered "telecom cages" be installed around prisons as the regime wages war against its own people. Political prisoners - largely banished to death row on trumped-up charges - have been subject to extreme torture and a disturbing rate of executions in the face of growing tensions in the Middle East. Insiders say their treatment is being weaponised to deter opposition. The fight against repression has loomed large for decades in the rogue state - but the so-called 12-day war last month has made the barbaric Ayatollah more fearful than ever of being toppled. Sources inside Iran told The Sun how a direct alert has been issued to the public, urging them to report any activity linked to resistance groups of the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Regime loyalists have been implored to act as informants - compiling detailed reports with photos, times, locations, licence plates and facial features of suspected individuals. Orders were publicised in an official government news outlet - marking a distinct shift in the paranoid regime's usual strategy of covert suppression. Insiders noted it points to the regime's growing perceived threat posed by the PMOI's grassroots operations. The PMOI has long fought for a secular, democratic Iran, and is understood to be gaining traction amid frustration with economic hardship, political repression, and international isolation. Insiders say they are instead planning to secretly bury them in a twisted bid to cover up their actions. Hassani's devastated daughter, who bravely campaigned for her dad's release, wept as she told how they had not been informed of his execution. In a harrowing video message shared with The Sun, she said: "They didn't grant him a final visit before the execution. "None of us knew, not even my father, who had told my sister to visit him on Monday. "I don't know what to say. I fought so hard. I had so much hope, so much… I still can't believe what has happened." Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the NCRI, has called on the United Nations to take "concrete and effective measures against a regime built on executions and torture". Mrs Rajavi said: "They [Ehsani and Hassani] now join the eternal ranks of those who have given their lives in the struggle for freedom and justice. "In what appears to be a desperate act during the twilight of his rule, Khamenei has perpetrated yet another grave crime - an effort to delay the inevitable collapse of his regime. Ayatollah 'on his heels' by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital) IRAN'S merciless regime is "fully on its heels" - leaving the Ayatollah's days numbered, a former US ambassador says. But the West will not be able to topple Tehran's brutal dictatorship, Mark D. Wallace, CEO & Founder of United Against Nuclear Iran, warned. The ex-ambassador to the UN said it will be down to the Iranian people - who have suffered outrageous repression for decades - to finally end the regime's rule. Iron-fist fanatics have used violent and ruthless measures, including executions and torture, in a twisted bid to stamp out opposition and silence critics. The regime's future now appears to be hanging by a thread, however, as it sits in a "combustible state" following the obliteration of its nuclear empire by the US and Israel. Several of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's top military brass were wiped out in the 12-day war - leaving the barbaric ruler vulnerable. Power held by Iran's terror proxies - including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen - has also been severely depleted. Wallace told The Sun: "The regime isn't just wounded, they're fully on their heels." "Far from securing his hold on power, this brutality only intensifies the outrage of the Iranian people and reinforces the determination of Iran's courageous youth to bring an end to this theocratic tyranny. "Honour to these steadfast Mojahedin who, after three years of unwavering resistance under torture, pressure, and threats, fulfilled their solemn pledge to God and the people with pride and dignity." It comes after The Sun reported how Iran's wounded regime massacred defenceless inmates at a prison before blaming their deaths on shrapnel from airstrikes. As Israeli missiles rained down on a nearby military site on June 16, panicked inmates at Dizel-Abad Prison in Kermanshah begged to be moved to safety. But they were instead met with a hail of bullets from the regime's merciless enforcers in a "deliberate and cold-blooded act", a witness said. Meanwhile, sweeping arrests are also plaguing Iran's population - with around 700 people understood to have been detained last month with reported links to a "spy network". Iran has one of the most horrific human rights records in the world, and according to campaigners also holds the harrowing title for the highest execution rate. Official records show that the number of executions last year reached 1,000 - the highest number in 30 years and 16 percent higher than the previous. Insiders believe this year that distressing toll will be much higher. 9 9
Free Malaysia Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
EU, Macron urge Niger junta to free ex-president
Emmanuel Macron voiced support for Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held for two years after being ousted in Niger's coup. (AP pic) BRUSSELS : The EU and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday urged Niger's ruling junta to release ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, two years to the day the army detained him. Bazoum has been held, along with his wife Hadiza, in a wing of the presidential palace, and according to his lawyers, he has not left the building in that time. The 27-member bloc said in a statement it welcomed the recent release of some political prisoners but 'regretted' the continued detention of Bazoum, 65, and others. 'The EU calls again for the release of these people who are being held for political reasons,' said the statement from Kaja Kallas, the bloc's top diplomat. Macron also called for Bazoum's release in a separate statement Saturday. 'Today, my thoughts are with Mohamed Bazoum, arbitrarily held for two years after the putsch which drove him from office as president of Niger,' Macron wrote on Facebook. 'I am also thinking of his wife Hadiza, who is held with him and his loved ones. I add my voice to all those calling for his release,' he added. Months after the coup, the junta said it intended to put Bazoum on trial, accusing him of treason and of 'plotting against the security and authority of the state'. If he was convicted of treason, he could face the death penalty, say his lawyers. In June last year, Niger's state court, set up by the regime, lifted Bazoum's presidential immunity, which could open the path to a trial. To date, however, no case has been opened against the former president, who was elected in 2021 and has not resigned. 'The EU remains available for a frank, honest, and structured dialogue with the Nigerien authorities based on mutual respect and shared interests,' the EU statement said.
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Tunisians protest against President Kais Saied's authoritarian rule on July 25 anniversary
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisians took to the streets Friday to protest President Kais Saied, marking four years since he made moves to consolidate his one-man rule in a country once known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings. On July 25, 2021, Saied suspended parliament, dismissed his prime minister and invoked a state of emergency to begin ruling by decree. Though some cheered his efforts, critics called the moves a coup and said the events marked the beginning of Tunisia's descent toward authoritarianism. Crowds on Friday marched through the capital chanting 'no fear, no terror, power to the people,' carrying portraits of political prisoners and a cage that organizers said represented the state of political life in Tunisia. The country's most prominent opposition figures are behind bars, including Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the Islamist Ennahda party, and Abir Moussi, leader of the right-wing Free Destourian Party. Women led much of the chanting, demanding the release of imprisoned opposition figures from across the political spectrum, including Moussi and attorney Sonia Dahmani. The two are among those who have been imprisoned since Saied's power grab as Tunisia's once-vibrant civil society has gradually been suppressed. Activists, journalists, dissidents and opposition figures have faced jail time, including many who have been charged with undermining state security. July 25 also marks the anniversary of Tunisia's declaration as a republic in 1957. It later became the rallying cry of the pro-Saied 'July 25 Movement,' which pushed for a crackdown on the country's largely unpopular political class. Samir Dilou, a former government minister and member of Ennahda, said Saied had forever changed the day's meaning. 'July 25 used to mark the Republic's founding. Now, it marks its dismantling. Absolute power is absolute corruption,' he said. Tunisia's political turmoil has unfolded against a backdrop of economic hardship and deepening public disillusionment. Amnesty International in a report last June wrote that the country's authorities have intensified their crackdown on opposition voices and used vague legal justifications to target marginalized groups.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Triple murderer among 10 inmates released back to the US as part of prisoner swap with Venezuela
A triple murderer was among the 10 prisoners sent back to the US as part of a deal between the State Department and Venezuela. Dahud Hanid Ortiz, 55, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in Caracas last year after he killed three people in Madrid in 2016. He was one of the American citizens flown to Texas on Friday as part of a deal between the White House and the Nicolas Maduro regime in Venezuela. The Trump administration said the Americans had been political prisoners in the country, with Secretary Marco Rubio saying: 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.' But the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal warned that one of them was a murderer, not a dissident, as reported by El Pais. It is not clear if Ortiz was transferred to a prison after landing in Texas last week. Daily Mail has reached out to the State Department for comment on this story. After the prisoner swap, Venezuelan regime leader Diosdado Cabello appeared to troll the US, saying: 'We handed over some murderers for you.' Ortiz was born in Venezuela, but became a naturalized US citizen after serving in Iraq. He was arrested in Caracas in 2018 after he fled Spain following the murders. Spanish police said Ortiz meant to kill his ex-wife's new boyfriend, lawyer Víctor Joel Salas, but instead killed the wrong man and two law clerks at a law firm. Salas told Spanish media he feels betrayed after Ortiz was sent to the US. 'Both my family and I feel deceived, betrayed, and frustrated,' he said. Venezuela on Friday released 10 jailed American citizens and permanent residents in exchange for scores of migrants deported by the United States to El Salvador months ago under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Aside from Ortiz, the Americans were among dozens of people, including activists, opposition members and union leaders, that Venezuela's regime took into custody in its brutal campaign to crack down on dissent over the last year. 'Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement in which he thanked El Salvador president Nayib Bukele. Bukele said El Salvador had handed over all the Venezuelan nationals in its custody. Maritza Osorio Riverón was Ortiz' third victim. Spanish police said Ortiz meant to kill his ex-wife's new boyfriend but targeted the wrong man and two assistants at a law firm Central to the deal were more than 250 Venezuelan migrants freed by El Salvador, which in March agreed to a $6 million payment from the Trump administration to house them in its notorious prison. That arrangement drew immediate blowback when Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly remove the men that his administration had accused of belonging to the violent Tren de Aragua street gang, teeing up a legal fight that reached the Supreme Court. The administration did not provide evidence to back up those claims. The Venezuelans had been held in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele's war on the country's gangs. Human rights groups have documented hundreds of deaths as well as cases of torture inside its walls. Photos and videos released by El Salvador's government on Friday showed shackled Venezuelans sitting in a fleet of buses and boarding planes surrounded by officers in riot gear. One man looked up and pointed toward the sky as he climbed aboard a plane, while another made an obscene gesture toward police. One of the men is reportedly Andry Hernández Romero, a makeup artist who fled Venezuela last year and was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody at a border crossing in San Diego before eventually being flown to El Salvador. Maduro described Friday as 'a day of blessings and good news for Venezuela.' He called it 'the perfect day for Venezuela.' The release of the Venezuelans, meanwhile, is an invaluable win for Maduro as he presses his efforts to assert himself as president despite credible evidence that he lost reelection last year.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vodka Toasts With the Dictator of Belarus: How Diplomacy Gets Done in Trump 2.0
A bus carrying 14 political prisoners with bags over their heads hurtled through the lush Belarusian countryside one morning last month, its destination unknown. Five years after President Alexander Lukashenko launched an unsparing crackdown on dissent in the former Soviet nation, some of the captives feared they were about to be executed. Among the group was the prominent dissident Siarhei Tsikhanouski whose wife, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, became the face of the Belarusian opposition movement after his arrest in 2020. As the bus approached its destination, their minders from the Belarusian security services — which still goes by its Soviet name the KGB — removed the bags from their heads but told them to keep their eyes fixed on the floor. 'We kept looking ahead all the same,' said Ihar Karnei, a Belarusian journalist who was among the group and had been imprisoned for two years. 'We were interested: Where were they taking us?' The bus pulled up to a field not far from Belarus' border with Lithuania. The door of the van flew open, and they received a surprising greeting: 'President Trump sent me to take you home.' The man speaking to the bewildered prisoners was John Coale, one of President Donald Trump's lawyers and now a deputy special envoy to Ukraine. It took a moment for the reality of what was happening to sink in. 'They were terrified,' Coale recalled in an interview with POLITICO Magazine. 'Opening that door and getting them to realize that 'You are free' was quite a moment.' The prisoner release, a goodwill gesture by the Belarusian leader, marked the continuation of a cautious diplomatic opening between the United States and Belarus. The fraught relationship between the two countries came to a standstill in 2020 when protests against rigged elections were met with mass arrests and thousands of people were swept into the country's vast prison system. But the release also wouldn't have happened without Coale's efforts to forge a relationship with Lukashenko, including over a long lunch with vodka toasts. 'I did two shots, didn't throw up, but did not do a third one,' said Coale. The episode offers a window into the highly personalistic way in which foreign policy gets done during Trump's second term in office, as the president has tapped a slew of close friends and allies to serve as his envoys and implement his agenda abroad. Critics have balked at their lack of experience; after all, they smirk, can real estate magnate Steve Witkoff really lead negotiations to conclude Russia's war on Ukraine, tackle Iran's nuclear program and end Israel's war in Gaza? But the envoys bring the prospect of a direct line to the president and the chance to bypass State Department bureaucracy. They are also free to say and do things that traditional U.S. diplomats might not be able to. 'It's sort of easier to have an eye-to-eye conversation with the president's right hand,' said Artyom Shraibman, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dispatching the national security advisor or secretary of State (currently Marco Rubio in both cases), could be seen as a full legitimization of Belarus' isolated president, said Franak Viacorka, chief of staff to Tsikhanouskaya, the opposition leader. 'But if we speak about envoys — an envoy's task is to make deals, to solve crises,' he said. Coale's adventures in Belarus began with a call from the State Department in late April with a special request. Was he willing to go to Minsk to meet with Lukashenko, a man often described as Europe's last dictator? 'Fine,' said Coale. Could he fly out the next day? 'Not fine,' he replied. 'But I did it anyway.' The 78-year-old Coale is a plainspoken, veteran litigator perhaps best known for helping to broker a $386 billion settlement from Big Tobacco in the late 1990s. He's also had a winding political life; a longtime Democrat, Coale endorsed John McCain in 2008 and befriended Sarah Palin, before backing Democrat Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential bid. In 2021, he led Trump's longshot lawsuit against social media companies, accusing them of censorship. 'The woke stuff has moved me to the right,' he said in one interview. He first met Trump some 20 years ago through his wife Greta Van Susteren, the former Fox News host who has interviewed the president on numerous occasions. Days after the call, Coale and a handful of U.S. diplomats crossed the border from Lithuania into Belarus, stopping on a country road to swap out the diplomatic license plates on their vehicles so as not to attract attention. They arrived at Independence Palace, Lukashenko's residence in central Minsk which, with its glass facade and swooping metal roof, is the size of a small airport terminal. 'It's so big that Tom Brady couldn't throw a pass from one end of the lobby to the other,' Coale said. The imposing complex on the capital's Victory Avenue was built as a symbol of the country's independence, according to the website of the Belarusian sovereignty was always tenuous. One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies, Lukashenko has long relied on subsidies from Moscow to prop up his ailing economy. In 2022, Belarus was used as a staging ground for Russian troops in their full-scale assault on Ukraine which further cemented his alienation from the West. Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, preserving many of the institutions and habits of the country's Soviet past. He has proven skilled at playing Russia and the West off against each other, flirting with Washington and Brussels to get Putin's attention or secure relief from economic sanctions imposed on the country. Political prisoners have often been used as a bargaining chip. In 2015, Lukashenko released all those deemed wrongfully detained, prompting Europe and America to lift some sanctions. The reprieve was to be short-lived. Over 5,000 people have been convicted of politically motivated charges over the past five years, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Vyasna, and some 1,150 remain in prison. Trump has made freeing wrongfully detained Americans a priority of his foreign policy, creating an opening for authoritarian leaders like Lukashenko to get his attention. Within a week of Trump's inauguration in January, Belarus unilaterally released U.S. citizen Anastasia Nuhfer from prison. 'Lukashenko is afraid of Trump,' said Viacorka. '[He] knows very well how to deal with ordinary politicians, but he doesn't have a clue how to deal with these strong and unpredictable leaders like Trump.' Three more political prisoners were released in February, after Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Chris Smith quietly travelled to Belarus, becoming the most senior U.S. official to visit the country in over five years. By April, they were on the cusp of getting another American citizen released and dispatched Coale in a bid to seal the deal. Over a long lunch in the palace, Coale was tasked with getting to know the garrulous Belarusian leader. 'They told me to charm him. To yuck it up with him, so I did that,' he said. '[Lukashenko] brought up stuff about the State Department and I said, 'Yeah all they want to do is blah blah blah,' so he loved that.' Lukashenko struck Coale as smart, savvy. 'He does want better relations with the United States,' Coale said, adding that the Belarusian leader seemed keen to play a role in negotiations regarding the war in Ukraine. At some point vodka — Lukashenko's own personal brand — was brought out and the toasts commenced. The Belarusian president offered a toast to Trump. Smith, the State Department official, nudged Coale to reciprocate, as is customary in the region. Coale followed suit with his own toast to Lukashenko, and soon, he began to worry about his stomach. As the afternoon wore on there were more toasts, and while there was little talk of politics, the two men got to know each other. A relationship was developing. 'It was all fun,' Coale said. Lukashenko seems to have agreed. Hours later, the American delegation got what they had come for as the Belarusian authorities handed over Youras Ziankovich, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was arrested in Moscow in 2021 and accused of plotting a coup against Lukashenko. The U.S. government deemed him wrongfully detained earlier this year. Discussions continued behind the scenes into the summer and by June, another prisoner release was set in motion. When she awoke on the morning of Saturday June 21, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had little idea that she was about to be reunited with her husband, Siarhei. A popular YouTube blogger, he was swiftly arrested after attempting to run against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential elections. Tsikhanouskaya, a soft-spoken former teacher, took up her husband's mantle after his arrest and was herself quickly forced into exile in Lithuania, becoming the most recognizable face of the Belarusian opposition. For five years she has shuttled between global capitals to raise awareness about her country's political prisoners, often carrying a folder bearing a photograph of her husband. On the morning her husband was released, Tsikhanouskaya was flying back from Poland to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius. She knew that Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, had been in Belarus the night before with Coale and that negotiations about a prisoner release were underway. She speculated with her chief of staff, Viacorka, who might be released but didn't dare expect her husband would be included. Having been held without access to anyone on the outside for over two years, Siarhei was on a shortlist of some 200 prisoners deemed a priority for release by Belarusian human rights defenders on humanitarian grounds. The majority of the 14 people who were about to be released were citizens of other countries who had been swept up in the crackdown, or, had some kind of affiliation with the West. It wasn't until the morning of the release that Coale learned the final details of the prisoners to be freed. As Tsikhanouskaya made her way back to Vilnius, the bus carrying her husband and 13 other political prisoners made its way to the Belarusian border with Lithuania, after the KGB handed them over to Coale and representatives from the State Department. By the time the now-former prisoners made it to the border, it was hours since they had been fed. Many were gaunt after years of meager prison rations. Siarhei, once a bear of man, emerged from prison unrecognizable with hollow cheeks. 'For some reason, in one of our cars was a whole basket of little Tootsie Rolls,' said Coale, which they passed around the group. As they waited to be processed into the country, Coale and the other diplomats passed their cellphones around so people could call their loved ones and let them know that they had been released. 'Nobody had any idea this was happening,' he said. In the Vilnius airport, Tsikhanouskaya received a call from her husband, with whom she hadn't had any contact in over two years. 'When I heard the voice of my husband on the phone, it was a huge surprise,' she said. He told her: 'My dear, I am free.' While Trump's efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine have run headlong into Putin's intransigence, Tsikhanouskaya hopes that her country could offer the diplomatic victory that Trump craves so dearly. 'Belarus can be a success story for President Trump,' she said. '[A] free, independent Belarus is in the interest of the USA as well.' Lukashenko also senses an opportunity to return to relevance as the U.S. president seeks to strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine, said Shraibman of the Carnegie Endowment. 'He wants to be relevant to the peace process. He wants to speak to the big guys. This is a prize in itself.' But Belarus isn't Switzerland. 'Lukashenko is so, so deeply dependent on Putin and Russia these days that it is simply beyond the power of the United States, no matter how hard it tries, to decouple these two countries,' Shraibman said. Coale isn't too preoccupied with Lukashenko's diplomatic dance. 'That's for Rubio to worry about.' 'I look at the thing of, can I free some more people,' he told me. 'And if it plays into my purpose and what I'm trying to do, I don't care.' Solve the daily Crossword
