The European Union should take a coordinated approach with Russia to prevent the repetition of the Ukrainian scenario in Belarus amid tensions following a controversial presidential election, Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament from the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), told Sputnik
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) The European Union should take a coordinated approach with Russia to prevent the repetition of the Ukrainian scenario in Belarus amid tensions following a controversial presidential election, Maximilian Krah, a member of the European Parliament from the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), told Sputnik.
Protests erupted in the capital of Minsk and other cities in Belarus in the days following the presidential election on Sunday that saw the country's incumbent President Aleksander Lukashenko reelected for a sixth consecutive term atop 26 years of uninterrupted presidency.
"We still pay the price for our misled politics towards Ukraine in 2013. What we need now is a coordinated approach with Russia to assure the Belarussians right to govern themselves without creating new tensions no one can wish," Krah said.
Describing Belarus as "a buffer state between the EU and Russia," the lawmaker said that the public resentment over the election results will show to Lukashenko that his country "is not a sovkhoz with a bullying director." Sovkhoz refers to Soviet-era state-owned collective farms.
In late 2013, protests broke out in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev against the government's decision to abandon an association agreement with the European Union. The government of then-president Viktor Yanukovych was subsequently overthrown in February of 2014.
Protests in Minsk are now growing increasingly violent, with one confirmed fatality. Police reportedly used water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters, and dozens of people were arrested.
According to official data from the Belarusian electoral authorities, Lukashenko won over 80 percent of the vote, while opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya came in second with just over 10 percent. Tikhanovskaya refused to recognize the outcome and claimed instead that she had won up to 70-80 percent of the vote.
On Monday, Tikhanovskaya filed a complaint with the Belarusian Central Election Commission and, according to reports, was briefly held on the premises against her will. Shortly after, she fled the country.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said that she had safely arrived in Lithuania.
