Mikalai Statkevich: Our Call Not to Lift Sanctions Heard in Brussels

The head of the European Commission’s Delegation to Belarus Andrea Wiktorin has met with the leaders of Belarusian opposition.

At the meeting with the German diplomat the former political prisoner, the head of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikalai Statkevich, the chairman of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka, a poet and public leader Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu and the deputy chairman of “For Freedom” movement Yury Hubarevich.

After the meeting Mikalai Statkevich told charter97.org that the key topic of the conversation was the situation in Belarus in the run-up to the so-called “presidential elections,” as well as the sanctions of the European Union against Lukashenka’s regime.

- The head of the Delegation of the European Commission told that Brussels had received our address concerning the necessity to maintain sanctions against the Belarusian regime, which had been sent to leaders of the European Union by us together with Andrei Sannikov and Ales Bialiatski. I was assured that the document had been taken very seriously.

It would not be appropriate to tell about the entire contents of the meeting, but I could say that we unambiguously stated that there are no elections in Belarus, it is a farce, and it should be treated as such. We also discussed the upcoming rally on October 10, as well as the situation related to deployment of a Russian military base in Belarus, – Statkevich said.