Скриншот видео.
One of Russia’s leading pro-Kremlin political Telegram channels, “EZh,” on Thursday evening, ahead of Aliaksandr Lukashenka‘s visit to Russia, published a video purportedly containing an intercepted conversation involving Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhankou. In the recording, the alleged official discusses a deal with Americans. The authenticity of the video cannot be verified.
The low-quality black-and-white footage shows a man in a suit sitting in the back seat of a car and talking on a mobile phone. The voice resembles that of Maksim Ryzhankou. However, the audio and video are out of sync.
The man discusses with a subordinate a deal involving an American investor that is said to be personally overseen by the “First” — a reference commonly used for Lukashenka. According to technical metadata shown in the recording, it was made on June 19, 2026.
“This is not just a matter of buying and selling. This is a deal that will open the door for us. We have to create a mechanism. If everything works out, you understand what kind of leverage we will have,” the man says, adding that “the price does not matter at all. We will compensate for everything later at the expense of our neighbors.”
It is notable that the alleged Ryzhankou, in what is presented as an informal conversation with a subordinate, deliberately explains the importance of the deal and its details. At the same time, the context suggests the interlocutor should already be familiar with all of the details if he is advising the minister. This creates the impression that the video may have been fabricated.
The authors of the Russian Telegram channel’s introductory post (a screenshot of which is provided below) appear not to understand the substance of the conversation. They merely speculated that Lukashenka was trying to sell the Nezhinsky mining and processing plant to American investors and concluded that Russia would ultimately have to compensate for the losses.
The creators of the video appear to have a different narrative. In the recording, the alleged Ryzhankou repeats a conspiracy theory that has circulated in Belarus over the past year — that Lukashenka hopes to secure the goodwill of Donald Trump‘s administration in exchange for the Nezhinsky mining and processing plant. When the alleged Ryzhankou refers to compensation “at the expense of our neighbors,” he is referring to potash transit through Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.