Leszek Szerepka: Belarusian authorities not ready for dialogue with EU

A dialogue is impossible unless the Belarusian authorities release political prisoners and guarantee termination of repression.

Leszek Szerepka, the ambassador of Poland to Belarus, made this statement in Mahilou, Radio Svaboda reports. Answering a question about improving relations between official Minsk, the EU and Poland, the ambassador said:

“Conditions of a dialogue has not changed – all prisoners of conscience, or political prisoners, as you call them, must be released from jails and rehabilitated. Besides, we want to have guarantees that they will not be thrown in prison a month or two after their release if a political situation changes. Political values are the most important thing in talks with Belarus. We can cooperate in any issues. We are ready to help, but we need to have a common language based on common values that both of us can understand. If we observe it, we will have no problems. Your government is not ready for this. There are no significant changes. I wouldn't like to count the number of political prisoners in Belarus. I wouldn't like Belarus to have them. We talked about it several times and made steps forward, but then we saw a backslide. This is the main problem.”

Leszek Szerepka said about the effectiveness of economic sanctions:

“There are countries that depend on Belarus. For example, the Baltic countries that gain rather high incomes from transit. It's not all black and white here. There are many people who say sanctions don't work at all. For example, Cuba is isolated, but it continues to live and develop. I think the success of the EU is that we managed to make decisive steps in relation to the Belarusian regime.”

Asked about a role of official Moscow in supporting the Belarusian regime, the Polish ambassador noted:

“There are forces in Europe that think it's better to talk to Moscow than spend time on talking to Minsk or Kyiv. Official Minsk made them tired. Some western politicians would be happy if there were no Lukashenka and solving Belarusian problems were possible via Moscow.”