Is President Trump looking for lower tensions with Moscow by indirect means, through Belarus, which shares a “Union State” with Russia? The United States says it is giving sanctions relief on two major Belarussian companies in exchange for Belarus releasing 25 prisoners. This was announced Sept. 16 in Minsk by U.S. Ambassador John Coale and Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko.
The companies getting relief are Lakokraska, an industrial paint and coatings manufacturer sanctioned by the United States since 2008, and the state-owned industrial firm Bellesbumprom, a forestry, pulp and paper producing company under sanction since 2023. The prisoner amnesty is the second arranged by Coale and Lukashenko this year.
