A senior U.S. envoy used a discussion about a weight-loss drug during a boozy dinner to help advance a diplomatic effort aimed at freeing political prisoners and easing sanctions on a close ally of Vladimir Putin.
The encounter took place during negotiations with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, whom the U.S. envoy, John P. Coale, described meeting while pressing for sanctions relief and other concessions.
Coale, a veteran litigator who has represented President Donald Trump in lawsuits against social media companies, said Lukashenko asked him whether he had lost weight during the talks, according to The Wall Street Journal. Coale replied that he had, crediting his use of Zepbound, an injectable drug approved for obesity, and handed the leader a brochure from the manufacturer, Eli Lilly.
The exchange unfolded as Lukashenko sought relief from U.S. sanctions on major Belarusian companies and help in repairing his presidential jet. In return, he signaled a willingness to release political prisoners, a resource the Belarusian leader controls in abundance.
Coale said the effort reflected President Trump’s personal approach to diplomacy. “I don’t care who we talk to,” he said in the interview with the Journal. “This really is Trumpesque. The hell with who you’re talking to, if this person can deliver what you want, that’s all that counts.”
The initiative has produced tangible results. Lukashenko recently released 123 prisoners, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski and opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava.
Since Trump returned to office, Belarus has freed more than 250 detainees from over 10 countries, including at least five American citizens, marking one of the largest political prisoner releases since the collapse of Communism.
In exchange, the United States has taken steps to ease economic pressure on the authoritarian government.
Washington lifted sanctions on potash, a major Belarusian export used in fertilizer production, and approved the provision of software and spare parts from Boeing to the state airline, Belavia. The Belarusian presidential jet is also set to receive long-delayed repairs.
U.S. officials also discussed the possibility of arranging a supply of Zepbound for Lukashenko, a heavyset 71-year-old leader who has described himself as “the last and only dictator in Europe.”
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