The interviewer is RT host and presenter of the Sanchez Effect program Richard (Rick) Sanchez. For over 40 years, he hosted his own news programs and worked as an anchor on major American television channels, including Fox News and CNN. He has interviewed four U.S. presidents, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev, and many other prominent political figures.
In 2019 Rick Sanchez joined the team of the RT America channel. In 2024, the journalist was forced to end his collaboration with RT due to sanctions imposed against the channel, and in 2025 he moved to Moscow to continue working for the channel.
Since 2025 Rick Sanchez has hosted his program Sanchez Effect on RT, where he presents his perspective on international events and discusses them with show guests. The program airs four times a week on television and on RT’s online platforms. Each episode collectively receives about 40 million views.
Over time, the guests on the Sanchez Effect program have included Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov, and others.
The RT television channel (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian international 24/7 multilingual news channel launched in 2005. It broadcasts in English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, and Serbian.
The interviewer was RT host and presenter of the Sanchez Effect program Richard (Rick) Sanchez. The interview lasted for nearly two hours.
Among the topics discussed were the preparation of a major deal between Belarus and the United States, its possible terms, the United States’ unique path to resuming cooperation with Russia, via Belarus, as well as the possibility of a meeting between Aleksandr Lukashenko and Donald Trump.
Also discussed was the geopolitical situation in the world, the situation in individual countries, including the conflict in the Middle East. The Belarusian president spoke about what the war between the United States and Israel against Iran has shown the entire world.
Rick Sanchez after interview: If Lukashenko is a dictator, then I am the Queen of England
Rick Sanchez, the host of the Sanchez Effect program on the RT TV channel, answered questions from Belarusian journalists after his interview with Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko and shared his impressions of the conversation with the head of state, BelTA has learned.
Rick Sanchez said that at present he feels greater journalistic freedom and independence on the Russian TV channel than in the American mass media he had previously worked for.
In this regard the interview with the Belarusian head of state was very telling. Rick Sanchez emphasized that it was a free conversation, an open exchange of views and ideas without any restrictions or predetermined topics and questions. «Therefore, if Lukashenko is a dictator, then I am the Queen of England,» the journalist said ironically, sharing his impressions of the interview with Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Rick Sanchez sincerely admitted that he had gone into the conversation with the Belarus president with a certain prejudice about him as a «dictator». The prejudice had formed over years of living in the USA. He explained that while in that country, it is very difficult to avoid the stereotypes that are imposed from all sides. «If you live in the USA, you are taught to think that only America matters and other countries have no significance,» the journalist explained. «You hear this day after day and you believe it (as I did). Until you travel to other countries around the world, and then your eyes are opened: it turns out there is an alternative reality. This does not mean that other countries, for example Belarus or Russia, are perfect. There are problems. But they — these countries — are not worse. They are just different. And we need to recognize and discuss these differences in order to make things better. This is exactly what journalists should be doing.»
