Lukashenka Says He Discussed the Release of a Thousand Political Prisoners With Americans

At the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, Alyaksandr Lukashenka spoke about how he discussed with Americans the release of a thousand political prisoners.

“When the Americans say: release this person, I say: ‘Guys, we’ll give you another hundred.’ That’s how the previous talks ended — they latched onto that. A hundred. We had to give them a hundred. And now I tell them: ‘A thousand. If you think a thousand’… But we don’t have a thousand there, so I say: we’ll add drug addicts and others, please, take them away there. No, they say, we don’t need drug addicts. We don’t need bandits,” he said.

“So I say: fine, then don’t talk about a thousand. That’s how the talks are going — not unsuccessfully. But once again I stress: seriously speaking, we need to build relations with them the way others do,” Lukashenka added.