March 3, the Foreign Ministers of Germany and the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) in Bratislava threatened new sanctions against the Belarusian authorities, if Belarus didn't release all the people, considered as political prisoners in Europe. They also stressed that Belarus should stop persecution of opposition and respect human rights.
Meanwhile, as reported by the Czech agency ČTK, Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus Valeri Voronetskii, taken part at the meeting of representatives of the Eastern Partnership member-countries «with the Foreign Ministers of Germany and the Visegrad Group, as well as the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Kathryn Ashton, failed to appear at a joint press conference, reports «Belarusian partisans.»
As Telegraf previously reported, the EU visa sanctions, imposed on 158 Belarusian officials in February, were supported by another nine European countries outside the EU — Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro.
