Member of Russia’s State Duma: EP Resolution - Too Much

According to Leonid Slutsky, a policy of antagonism to Minsk, chosen by the European Union, is absolutely non-constructive mainly for the EU itself. Thus the EU is deprived of the opportunity to engage in dialogue with Belarus, said chairman of the committee on CIS affairs, ITAR-TASS reported.

Leonid Slutsky says the opponents can’t be "removed at a distance, marked with different kinds of stamps and indiscriminately labeled." The politician believes that the future of the EU is unthinkable without Belarus.

Similar opinion is shared by first deputy chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee Andrey Klimov. He said the MEPs "make sport a hostage of their policy." Andrei Klimov notes that if Russia had been guided by the same logic as the EU, it would have had to call upon the international community to reject all sporting events in the Baltic countries, where, according to the Russian leadership, human rights are brutally violated.

As Telegraf previously reported, March 29, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Belarus at the meeting in Brussels, which condemns the deteriorating situation with human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus, as well as lack of profound democratic and economic reforms in the country" and "repression against opponents of the regime."

The EP requires Minsk to "immediately and unconditionally release all the political prisoners," as well as called on the national hockey federation of the EU Member States and all democratic countries to apply to the International Ice Hockey Federation with a proposal to once again discuss the possibility of removal of the World Hockey Championship in 2014 from Belarus to another country.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry regarded the adopted resolution as a "stereotyped behavior, far from reality." "Loud declarations can’t replace common sense, while one-sided interpretation of reality can only delay but not cancel the search for an algorithm of a constructive dialogue," said department spokesman Andrei Savinykh.