Trump appointed John Coale as Special Envoy to Minsk, formalizing a controversial new chapter: trading prisoner releases for sanctions relief and legitimacy for Lukashenko.

WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced the appointment of veteran Washington lawyer and political operative John Coale as Special Envoy to Belarus.

The move formalizes the transactional diplomacy that has, in recent weeks, delivered a shocking exchange: the release of Belarusian political prisoners in return for the first measurable lifting of US sanctions since the start of the Ukraine war.

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In announcing the appointment on social media, Trump did not mince words about the nature of the engagement. He praised Lukashenko as “the Highly Respected President of Belarus,” and pointedly thanked him for considering the release of “50 more prisoners” following the earlier, successful negotiation of dozens of detainees.

The gesture provides Lukashenko with a desperately needed injection of international legitimacy after years of isolation and sanctions stemming from his brutal repression of dissent and, crucially, his decision to serve as a launchpad for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In return, Washington lifted some sanctions on the Belarusian national airline, Belavia – the economic carrot dangled by the White House.

The man tapped to navigate the thorny landscape of Minsk is John Coale, a longtime fixture in Washington legal and media circles whose background is a study in political fluidity.

Coale, a lawyer by training who currently serves as Trump’s deputy special envoy to Ukraine, has been instrumental in the recent prisoner releases, acting as the President’s personal emissary.

His path to becoming a key liaison to a Putin ally is anything but conventional. Once a major Democratic donor in Washington, Coale later advised ultra-conservative Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.