Time journalist Simon Schuster, who interviewed the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, wrote that one of the Belarusian officials contacted him in May with a request to be interviewed.
According to Schuster, such offers “were rarely as insistent” as they were this time. After a few minutes of conversation, the official asked how much it would cost to arrange an interview. He was surprised to learn that it did not require a bribe.
"Just checking to avoid any misunderstandings later," he said.
Ultimately, Schuster concluded that Lukashenko wanted to use him to influence public opinion in the US. In the conversation, Lukashenko told him that he needed to “give Trump a push” to get things sorted out.
“He wanted us all to believe that the United States should maintain a respectful tone in its relations with the Kremlin,” Shuster wrote.
- Lukashenko gave an interview to Simon Schuster on July 25, and it became available on August 8. In it, among other things, he stated that he did not plan to run for an eighth term, and that his youngest son Mykola would not be his successor.
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