Lukashenka didn’t permit dissident from Belarus to receive Polish award

Last week, the President of Poland awarded representatives of dissidents from the former Soviet Union with orders of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Citizens of Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia were awarded, “Nasha Niva” newspaper reports. All of them were partners of friends of Solidarity movement in 1980s.

Activist of the Conservative Christian Party BPF Valer Buival was among the winners. He was in Warsaw on Sunday, but failed to receive the order. According to the rules, awarding of a winner must be approved by the leadership of the country he lives in. Lukashenka didn’t give a permit.

Russian dissident Alexander Podrabinek refused to accept the order. He wrote in an open letter to Polish president Lech Kaczynski:

“Assuring you of my sincere sympathy to national independence and sovereignty of Poland, if giving state awards to foreign citizens needs approval of dictators and presidents, who are not supported in their own countries.”

“I was even more shocked at the news that the Belarusian dissident won’t be given the order, because last Europe’s dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka has not approved it yet,” the journalist wrote to Kaczynski.