Vyachaslau Siuchyk: Political prisoners will be released if this issue is linked with oil products

The dictator has vulnerable spots that have never been used by the West.

Opposition politician and former political prisoner Vyachaslau Sichyk talked to Radio Svaboda.

”The events in Ukraine, where  Yuriy Lutsenko and other allies of Yulia Tymoshenko have been released, give us a hope. Process in Ukraine have an impact on Belarus. Earlier, the dictator was able to say that we are not the only country that has political prisoners. But yesterday's release of Lutsenko shows that the EU has tools to influence Eastern European countries. I wish the questions of Belarusian political prisoners would finally be raised in the nearest future. Why do I say 'finally? It's because the European Union has made none particular steps in relation to Lukashenka's dictatorship. The dictatorship has its vulnerable spots. Everyone knows about them, but Europe has not used them yet,” the politician said.

Vyachaslau Siuchyk says the export of oil products to the EU has significantly increased in the recent years.

“We may just look at statistics and see which of the European counties use Belarusian oil products and how much. It's billions of dollars per year. The problem of political prisoners has never been raised in this context. If such a connection were established, the political prisoners would be released next day,” he said.