Viktar Ivashkevich: Milinkevich extorts European money for Lukashenka

Statements and actions by some politicians are aimed at keeping the Belarusian regime afloat.

Viktar Ivashkevich, a coordinator of European Belarus civil campaign, talked to charter97.org about Milinkevich's call on the EU to lift sanctions.

“The statements by Milinkevich and his supporters are a smoke screen to hide their desire to embed themselves into the regime and become the opposition under Lukashenka's rule – like Zyuganov or Zhirinovsky in Russia. This is their task. All actions by Milinkevich are aimed at pleasing the regime and keeping it afloat for the money of Europe. He often makes such statements,” Viktar Ivashkevich said.

The politician says Milinkevich's words that political prisoners were released  only due to dialogue between Minsk and Brussels were a lie.

“The dialogue has never been stopped. Exporting oil products and trading with the EU – isn't it a dialogue? Visits of European diplomats to Minsk – isn't it a dialogue? But it doesn't help to free political prisoners. In real case, political prisoners were released only when it was a real threat of sanctions against the regime. They were released in 2011 not due to talks with the EU, but due to a threat to Lukashenka's pocket.”

It should be reminded that the conference titled “The Dialogue on Modernisation with Belarusian Society” was held in Brussels yesterday.

Aliaksandr Milinkevich, the leader of the Movement For Freedom, supported the dialogue between the EU and the regime, because, as he thinks, it “will distract Belarus from Russia”. The politician said the liberalisation of 2009-2010 was successful and that “the Russian secret services were involved” in the provocations during the post-election protests on December 19, 2010. Milinkevich called on the EU to lift sanctions.