TIME journalist recounts his journey to Minsk for Lukashenko interview, explains why now

During an interview with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, Simon Shuster, a journalist with TIME Magazine, shared the details of his journey to Minsk and explained why he requested the meeting at this specific time, BelTA learned.

“I truly appreciate this opportunity to speak with you, especially at such an interesting time in U.S.-Belarus relations,” the journalist said at the start refereeing to the recent visits by U.S. diplomats that attracted significant attention.”This uptick, if I may call it that, in dialogue between the Trump administration and the Belarusian government,” he noted. According to him, the editorial team deemed this an especially opportune moment to arrange travel to Belarus and interview its president while also using their correspondent to gain firsthand understanding of the situation on the ground. 

Simon Shuster emphasized how much he appreciated Aleksandr Lukashenko's conversational style - completely open and frank. “I truly value your willingness to address any question. Not every leader I've interviewed maintains this approach,” he noted.

Aleksandr Lukashenko responded that otherwise (without anticipating a frank and detailed discussion) there would have been no point in undertaking such a long journey to conduct the interview in the first place. “Otherwise why would you need to fly all this way from New York? And what’s more - kudos to you for coming to us like an ordinary person, enduring all those border difficulties and hardships.”

“Yes, it was quite an experience. Five hours on the border," the journalist remarked, clarifying that Belarusian border guards weren't responsible for the delay.

This led to discussion of recent reinstatement of border controls between certain EU countries within the Schengen zone. Official reasons are combating illegal migration, but as the president noted “one can always find justification if needed.”

“Between Poland and Germany… Between Poland and Lithuania,” the president cited several examples. “Who would have thought Poland would close its borders? Fine, it closed its border with Belarus, ‘a dictatorship, Kremlin’ and so on. They keep feeding these narratives to their society and the world at large. But now they’ve closed borders [reinstated border controls with Germany and Lithuania.]

“These are concerning trends that these things are happening within the EU itself,” the journalist concurred.