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TALLINN, Estonia — <\/span>TALLINN, Estonia (AP) \u2014 Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko<\/a> on Thursday hosted a U.S. envoy for talks in the Belarus capital of Minsk, the latest step in the isolated leader\u2019s effort to improve ties with the West.<\/p>\n Lukashenko met with President Donald Trump\u2019s special envoy for Belarus, John Coale, according to the presidential press service. State news agency Belta quoted Lukashenko saying topics on the agenda include restoring the normal functioning of the U.S. Embassy in Minsk, which suspended operations in 2022, the “release of so-called political prisoners,\u201d as well as sanctions and other economic issues.<\/p>\n The last time U.S. officials met with Lukashenko, in December, Washington announced easing some sanctions, and 123 prisoners were released and sent to Ukraine and Lithuania. <\/p>\n A close ally of Russia, Minsk has faced isolation for years. Lukashenko has ruled the nation<\/a> of 9.5 million with an iron fist for more than three decades, and the country has been sanctioned repeatedly by Western countries<\/a> \u2014 both for its crackdown on human rights and for allowing Moscow to use its territory in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. <\/p>\n Lukashenko\u2019s rule was challenged after a 2020 presidential election, when tens of thousands poured into the streets<\/a> to protest a vote they viewed as rigged. They were the largest demonstrations since Belarus became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n In an ensuing crackdown, tens of thousands were detained, with many beaten by police. Prominent opposition figures either fled the country or were imprisoned.<\/p>\n Five years after the mass demonstrations, Lukashenko won a seventh term<\/a> last year in an election that the opposition called a farce.<\/p>\n More recently, Belarus has begun to free some political prisoners to try to win favor with the West. Since Donald Trump returned to the White House this year, Lukashenko has released dozens of prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski<\/a> and key dissident figures Siarhei Tsikhanouski<\/a>, Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kolesnikova<\/a>. <\/p>\n