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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has issued a formal congratulations to Donald Trump for his victory in the US presidential election, following some rare positive remarks also made by Russia’s Vladmir Putin.

Lukashenko signaled his support and openness to seeking the end of the Ukraine war by favorable negotiated settlement. “If he [ends the war], we’ll petition for the Nobel Prize. He’ll be rewarded for doing a good deed,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying in state-run Belta.

Among the more interesting statements was Lukashenko’s observation that “America was ready to elect a Black president, but America is not ready to elect a woman.”

But of Trump, the Belarusian strongman described, “They shot him, they pressured him, they wanted to put him in jail, but he bulldozed through.”

The backdrop to the remarks wherein Lukashenko hailed Trump was certainly interesting:

Speaking at a woodchopping event, Lukashenko called Trump a “powerhouse” who managed to return to the White House after what he described as a “kind of an unsuccessful” first term between 2017 and 2021.

This was very similar to Putin’s assessment the same day (Thursday), wherein the Russian President said that Trump acted “like a man” following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania last summer.

“His behavior at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me,” Putin said at the Valdai Club in the Black Sea city of Sochi. “He turned out to be a courageous man. And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals… He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man.”

So now it appears that Putin and Lukashenko agree that Trump represents the best hope that Washington could get more reasonable in its approach to the proxy war in Ukraine.

While Belarus has not directly entered the conflict, it has allowed Russian troops and assets to be stationed within its borders, and has facilitated the launch of drones against Ukraine from its territory. Russian tactical nukes are also widely reported to be stationed there.

The Belarusian leader still emphasized in the Thursday remarks that achieving peace “is not a unilateral process” and would likely require the cooperation of other international partners.

Meanwhile, Trump this week signaled there could be a potential phone call between and Putin soon. The Russian leader surprisingly said Thursday, “It wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself.” And Trump in turn told NBC news, “I think we’ll speak.”

This type of positive dialogue while the Ukraine war rages was unthinkable under the Biden-Harris administration, and for that reason the Kremlin was very closely watching the US election.