On the results of Sunday’s presidential elections in Belarus, it became known that the European Union may withdraw sanctions against President Alexander Lukashenko and more than 100 Belarusian officials. This gesture should be a reward for the release of a number of political prisoners in Minsk and mediating role in resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
Alexander Lukashenko won his fifth election with a record for himself 83.5 %. Second place went to the candidate “against all” with 6.4%. Central Election Commission of Belarus and CIS observers said that serious violations of the election was not. Observers from the OSCE has not yet assessed the vote, their report should be made public throughout the day.
Note that in the West, none of the elections in Belarus since the mid-1990s did not recognize the fair and democratic. However, this time the rhetoric of Western officials changed. BACKGROUND defrost contacts between Belarus and the West appeared almost immediately after the deterioration of relations between the West and Russia. Alexander Lukashenko no longer called “the last dictator of Europe.” Diplomatic ties between Minsk and Western capitals intensified. In early August, the EU Council decided to expel 24 citizens of Belarus from its sanctions list.
And today, after a meeting of the European Council in Luxembourg, the sanctions can be lifted from the Alexander Lukashenko and More than 100 representatives of the Belarusian authorities.
The sanctions against Belarus were introduced in several phases. The source of the EU sanctions list in 2004 included four officials who, according to Brussels to be involved in the disappearance of opposition politicians in Belarus in 1999-2000. In December 2004, after the parliamentary elections and referendum blacklist joined two other men. In April 2006, the list was expanded to 37 people who are responsible, according to the EU for human rights violations during the presidential campaign. After a hard acceleration street action on 19 December 2010 and the subsequent repression against the opposition and civil society, the European Union imposed sanctions on more than 130 Belarusian officials, including in relation to Alexander Lukashenko. Defendants in blacklist banned from entering the EU, their financial assets in European banks to be frozen.
Let it follows from the statements of European diplomats, sanctions can not be fully canceled and frozen, this is great progress.
«We are going to discuss today … under what conditions and for how long sanctions against Belarus could be modified or withdrawn. This will be an important topic of the meeting of European foreign ministers – said on Monday morning German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Shtaynmayer.- Belarus held elections whose results are not surprising in light of the support Lukashenko that exists, and general orders, but the terms of these elections were different. Political prisoners were released on the eve of elections. As we could see from Berlin, they are not usually carried out in the course of elections repression ».
European diplomats also noted that the lifting of sanctions Brussels marks a mediating role in Minsk in resolving the Ukrainian crisis.
Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic also noted that the EU is interested in rapprochement with Belarus. “Today the situation is changing. EU seeks to bring Belarus to itself – not for admission to the EU, but as a partner in order to stabilize the region. I think for that sanctions against Minsk – at least temporarily – be suspended “, – she said.
As Belarus was protected from the pressures of the West
With harsh criticism of Washington was made in January 2013 a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Belarus Andrei Savinykh. He told reporters that, according to the signed in 1994 in Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances in connection with the accession of Belarus to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the United States voluntarily undertook certain obligations. In particular, according to Mr. Savinykh, the American side has committed, under any circumstances, not to apply coercive economic measures against Belarus. Read more
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