Andrei Sannikov: “Judging by Minsk’s hysterical response, sanctions are severe”

“In fact, we do not know all details, but judging by the response of Minsk, the sanctions are grave. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a hysteria we observe now. Undoubtedly, imposing sanctions has been connected with political prisoners still being behind bars in Belarus, and primarily Kazulin, and as we know, new cases against democratic activists of Belarus are being prepared,” stated the international coordinator of the Charter’97, a member of the organizing committee of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Andrei Sannikov, commenting imposing sanctions against Belneftekhim concern by the US.

As said by Mr. Sannikov, one could understand from the comment of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry that there have been certain agreements between Minsk and Washington.

“It is said about an algorithm of US and Belarus’ actions in improving bilateral relations. Apparently, the Belarusian side hasn’t fulfilled certain agreements, which has caused a response from the side of the US. I think that it’s a justifiable position, as the matter concerns lives and health of innocent people. And if official Minsk offered bargaining on every political prisoner, as it had been done before, the sanctions could be expected from the US. As far as I understand, the matter concerned release of all political prisoners as the first step which could serve as a message for normalization of relations. The process of releasing prisoners has been dropped before Alyaksandr Kazulin’s release, that is why the democratic states do not think this step has been done,” the diplomat said.

“It comes under notice that in its statement Foreign Ministry of Belarus speaks about commitments of the US in the framework of the OSCE,” Mr. Sannikov states. “Thus the official Minsk recognizes the importance of the international legislation and following the norms of these laws. But if the Belarusian authorities actually wanted normalization of relations with Europe and the US, they should have primarily followed commitments in the framework of the OSCE and other international organizations. The OSCE is not Russia, on which the official Minsk relies. And the OSCE mechanisms could in effect be used for democratic reforms,” the diplomat says.

Andrei Sannikov notes that the Belarusian Foreign Ministry “in some strange way” is seeking aggravation, and not a resolution of the conflict.

“It’s impossible to explain by any diplomatic norms the impudent attacks against the US Ambassador. An Ambassador of a state is subject to the head of the state and the Foreign Ministry of his or her state, and not to the authorities of a country of residence. It is really so, an ambassador should observe the laws of the receiving country, but offensive recommendations to leave the county cannot be names any law. According to logics, if the Foreign Ministry of Belarus would be pounding away on the same line as before, the next step would be announcing the ambassador a non-grata person and rupture of diplomatic relations. But in this case new sanctions are to be expected, both from the US and from their allies,” believes that member of the organizing committee of the civil campaign “European Belarus”.

“I think that the reason for imposing sanctions is maximally clear. If “cool heads” would be found in Belarusian government, the most sensible solution would be immediate release of political prisoners and termination of political repressions. In this case not only a chance to avoid sanctions would appear, but to have serious talks on trade and economic cooperation with the leading states of the world,” Andrei Sannikov is convinced.