Mikola Statkevich: “Democracy’s imitation will continue”

The leader of the Social Democratic party (Narodnaya Hramada) believes that the Belarusian authorities are still concerned by loans from the European Union, and not by the issue of the sanctions.

The Council of the European Union has adopted a decision to extend visa sanctions against official Minsk till October 2010. At the same time, these sanctions are frozen for a year. As said by the leader of the Social Democratic party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikola Statkevich, this decision won’t have much effect, as the Belarusian authorities are concerned only by money, not by sanctions.

“I would assess this decision as a little victory of the opposition and defeat of the authorities,” Statkevich noted in an interview to Radio Svaboda. “And only because the authorities stated that this variant is unacceptable for them. And now they have this “unacceptable” variant, but they would have to “swallow” it, as the most important thing for them is money. Imitation of democracy will undoubtedly be continued, if there is money. Our “miraculous” economic model demands multibillion external; financing every year. That is why the authorities would be able to “swallow” that, as well as Europe the things happening in our country, which is imitation instead of real democracy”.