Tsapkala: Kohl called me, and I advised him not to meet with Tsikhanouskaya

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and John Kohl awaiting the released political prisoners on September 11, 2025, in Vilnius. Photo: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's Office

In an interview with The Insider Live YouTube channel, Valery Tsapkala said that shortly after Trump called Lukashenka, John Kohl called him.

"We talk on the phone about once a week," Tsapkala claims.

The former participant in the 2020 presidential election campaign states that he asked Kohl "not to bring this topic (the release of political prisoners — NN) into a political aspect in any way and not to meet with Tsikhanouskaya."

As Tsapkala explains, he understood that "this would derail the diplomatic efforts that had already begun."

"They (Tsikhanouskaya's Office — NN) would definitely attribute it to themselves, they would dissolve it in the mass consciousness, and if that happened, it would immediately stop the process of releasing political prisoners, as it happened somewhere around 2021," Tsapkala continues.

According to him, Pavel Latushka then stated that Lukashenka was allegedly going to release Viktar Babaryka and send him abroad along with his son and several other political prisoners.

"Either he was lying and had no data, or, if he did have such data, it kept Viktar Babaryka and other political prisoners in jail for another 4 years.

I perfectly understood that any publicity on this issue and attributing credit to oneself before the main political prisoners are released could derail diplomatic efforts. I told Kohl about this," states the advisor to the Albanian Investment Corporation.

Tsapkala calls the collective letters of Nobel laureates an important point:

"Kohl once called me and asked if we were informing the Nobel laureates about all efforts. Naturally, we immediately informed them, gathered their reaction, and they thanked Trump for these efforts. They asked him to continue his efforts so that all political prisoners would be released."

According to Tsapkala, during another call, John Kohl, somewhere in November 2025, informed him that in the near future — "next week or in a week" — another thousand Belarusian political prisoners could be released. Tsapkala claims that he forwarded this information to the foreign ministries of several countries.

"But then we thought that it would be desirable to record this on paper. We prepared a draft agreement, sent it to Kohl, which could make this process irreversible at least for those people who are being released. (...) And about a week later, maybe ten days later, Kohl received official status [as special representative],"

states the advisor to the Albanian Investment Corporation.

"I didn't ask him if it was related to our proposal to document agreements concluded with Lukashenka on paper, or if it might have been accidental, but it chronologically coincided very interestingly," the former politician concludes.

However, 1000 political prisoners have not been released yet.

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