The European Union is planning to dilute sanctions against Belarus – the continent’s last remaining dictatorship – despite last weekend’s rigged elections. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the poll, in which none of the 70 opposition candidates were elected to the 110-seat parliament, failed to meet international democratic standards.
The OSCE, which deployed 450 poll monitors, was denied access to more than a third of polling stations and found “several cases of deliberate falsification of results“.
But Russia condoned the elections and criticized the OSCE. Observers from the Kremlin-led Commonwealth of Independent States deemed the vote “in accordance to [sic] international norms of democratic elections.”
Most EU states favor re-opening diplomatic ties with
the regime, with Poland and Lithuania leading the drive for fear that Belarus could be lost to Russia. Germany appears neutral camp, with Denmark and the Netherlands hostile to any reduction in sanctions.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski noted that the EU has lifted sanctions against Cuba even while Havana is still holding political prisoners.
Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko told OSCE observers that the poll conducted according to Belarusian law. Minsk now “expects Europe to lift sanctions which have offended us,” said Lukashenko.
Since Russia sharply increased energy prices, Lukashenko has made overtures to the West and freed the few remaining political prisoners whose release the West had sought. Minsk has tried to deflect Kremlin resentment at his shift, with Lukashenko insisting that “Europe would make a big mistake if it makes worsening of our ties with Russia a condition for improving ties.”
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