Putin slams external pressure on Belarus as Macron meets opp. leader
Russian President Vladimir Putin has decried the “unprecedented external pressure” exerted on neighboring Belarus, as French President Emmanuel Macron met with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Lithuania.
Putin said in televised remarks on Tuesday that Belarus was in a “difficult situation” and facing “unprecedented external pressure.”
Belarus has been experiencing unrest since Alexander Lukashenko won the country’s presidential election in August. The opposition rejected the official results of the election and claimed there had been voter fraud.
Western governments have repeated the Belarusian opposition’s allegations. The EU announced on September 15 that it did not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus.
Lukashenko has rejected the allegations of vote rigging but proposed the drafting of a new constitution less reliant on the head of state.
Addressing a forum, President Putin said Moscow had expressed its readiness to stand by Minsk, with which Moscow has “timeless and all-weather” relations.
Putin has promised to offer security assistance to Belarus if the political crisis there worsens, and pledged to grant a loan of 1.5 billion dollars to the country.
Macron promises mediation
Tikhanovskaya, who unilaterally claimed victory against Lukashenko in the August vote and fled to Lithuania in the aftermath of the election, has been rallying Western support for herself.
On Tuesday, she met the French president in Vilnius. She told reporters that Macron had promised to help negotiate with Belarus’ authorities.
“He promised us to do everything to help with negotiations, (during) this political crisis in our country… and he will do everything to help to release all the political prisoners,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters after the meeting.
Macron told reporters, “We will do our best as Europeans to help mediate and we will come back to OSCE mediation in order to progress,” referring to an offer from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
“Our objective is for this mediation to begin in the next few days or weeks,” the French president said. “The aim is a peaceful transition, the release of people who are in prison for their political opinions and the holding of free elections under international observation.”
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