Russia calls on the Belarusian authorities to respect human rights, but "unlike the European Union does not threaten with any sanctions," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on May 31. "Attempts to accuse of our supporting the EU, do not reflect reality," he said after his meeting with Alexander Lukashenko.
«We just call for respect for human rights and international obligations, and we do not introduce or threaten with any new sanctions, as does the EU. So the difference should be understood here,» RIA «Novosti» quotes Sergey Lavrov.
«We do not urge Belarus to anything that we haven’t set as a goal for ourselves. Compliance with international obligations, including, inter alia, promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms,» the minister added.
According to him, the president of Belarus «will not allow the West to configure himself at the expense of relations with Russia.» «Alexander Lukashenko said today that Western attempts to set Lukashenko against Russia is doomed to failure. He will never do anything that may contradict our fraternal union,» says head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
As Telegraf previously reported, May 23, the EU expanded the black list of Belarusian officials, targeted for such restrictions as the accounts freezing and the EU entry ban. Sanctions against Belarus were also imposed by Norway and the USA.
Meanwhile, aliens engaged in human rights activities, including Russian ones, are regularly detained in Belarus. The head of the International Observation Mission of the Committee of international control over the human rights situation in Belarus, Andrei Yurov, a Russian citizen, was deported from Belarus in March.
