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| Belarus crisis: EU leaders hold emergency talks | |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| Heads of state poised to declare solidarity with protests against Lukashenko’s grip on power | Heads of state poised to declare solidarity with protests against Lukashenko’s grip on power |
| EU leaders are holding emergency talks on the political crisis in Belarus, after 10 days of protests that have shaken Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year grip on power. | |
| In the run-up to the meeting on Wednesday, the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, urged the EU not to recognise Lukashenko as president. | In the run-up to the meeting on Wednesday, the Belarusian opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, urged the EU not to recognise Lukashenko as president. |
| “I call on you not to recognise these fraudulent elections,” she said. “Mr Lukashenko has lost all the legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.” | “I call on you not to recognise these fraudulent elections,” she said. “Mr Lukashenko has lost all the legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.” |
| The bloc’s 27 heads of state are meeting via video link from noon CET, where they are expected to issue a declaration of solidarity with the protest movement. They will also endorse a plan to sanction Belarusian officials who ran the disputed elections that resulted in an improbable landslide for Lukashenko, as well as those responsible for the violent political crackdown. | |
| Lukashenko claimed victory in presidential elections 11 days ago after official results gave him 80% of the vote, with 10% to Tikhanovskaya. The EU said the contest was neither free nor fair. | Lukashenko claimed victory in presidential elections 11 days ago after official results gave him 80% of the vote, with 10% to Tikhanovskaya. The EU said the contest was neither free nor fair. |
| “Our message is clear. Violence has to stop and a peaceful and inclusive dialogue has to be launched,” the European council president, Charles Michel, tweeted as the meeting got under way. “The leadership of Belarus must reflect the will of the people.” | |
| The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, said the EU, including the Netherlands, could not accept the results of the election. | |
| While the bloc’s leverage is unclear, EU leaders have been urged to deliver a warning against Russian meddling, after Lukashenko called Vladimir Putin for help at the weekend. | |
| On Tuesday, the leaders of Germany and France, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, spoke to the Russian president in separate phone calls. They set out their expectations that Lukashenko would refrain from violence, release political prisoners and open dialogue with the opposition. In both calls Putin spoke against “outside interference” in Belarus, according to Kremlin readouts. | On Tuesday, the leaders of Germany and France, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, spoke to the Russian president in separate phone calls. They set out their expectations that Lukashenko would refrain from violence, release political prisoners and open dialogue with the opposition. In both calls Putin spoke against “outside interference” in Belarus, according to Kremlin readouts. |
| Michel also spoke to the Russian leader. An EU official said they “discussed the best ways to encourage/assist intra-Belarusian dialogue for a peaceful end to the crisis”, adding that one option was dialogue through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. | Michel also spoke to the Russian leader. An EU official said they “discussed the best ways to encourage/assist intra-Belarusian dialogue for a peaceful end to the crisis”, adding that one option was dialogue through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. |
| The OSCE counts EU member states as well as Belarus and Russia among its members, but was denied access to monitor last week’s presidential elections. | The OSCE counts EU member states as well as Belarus and Russia among its members, but was denied access to monitor last week’s presidential elections. |
| On Wednesday, senior Russian officials called on western leaders not to interfere in Belarus, with Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, accusing several EU states of launching a “struggle for the post-Soviet space”. | |
| The remarks appeared to reflect a growing sense that Lukashenko may survive the largest protests of his 26 years in power. | |
| Moscow had adopted a “wait-and-see” approach, analysts of the Kremlin told the Guardian, but it would like Lukashenko to limp through the crisis if it left him susceptible to further Russian pressure for integration. | |
| Without directly mentioning Lukashenko, a Kremlin spokesman decried western pressure against him, saying it was “unacceptable”. | |
| “What counts most in the current situation is avoiding any foreign influence, any foreign interference,” Dmitri Peskov told journalists. “We regret that, unfortunately, attempts at such interference, such direct interference, are being made.” | |
| Russia has largely held back from providing direct aid to Lukashenko, in public at least. But Putin and Lukashenko have spoken three times since Saturday and there are signs of other high-level contact. A Tupolev Tu-214 jet previously used by the head of Russia’s FSB intelligence service flew to Minsk on Tuesday night and returned hours later. Peskov said he had no information on the plane. | |
| Russia has not sent military aid to Belarus under a military treaty, Peskov said, and added: “There’s no such need at the moment, and actually, the Belarusian leadership has admitted the absence of such necessity.” | |
| In remarks to Russian state television, Lavrov accused Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and the EU parliament of attempting to meddle in Belarus. | |
| “No one is hiding that this is about geopolitics, about the struggle for the post-Soviet space,” he said. “We have seen this struggle in previous stages after the Soviet Union ceased its existence. The last example, of course, was Ukraine.” | |
| He also accused protesters of provoking riot police, who fell on them with rubber bullets and stun grenades in a rout covered even on Russian television. “We see how they tried to provoke riot police,” Lavrov said, referring to video materials and posts on social networks. | |
| He did criticised the 9 August elections, in which Lukashenko was accused of massive vote-rigging, saying they were “not ideal”. But he added that the government was ready to talk to the opposition. “I don’t see a lack of readiness from the government for dialogue,” he said. | |
| So far Lukashenko has refused all offers to talk with the opposition. “He is desperately looking for the way out, not for the country but for himself,” Lithuania’s foreign minister, Linas Linkevičius, said. Lukashenko needed to be involved in any talks, he added. | |
| “We have to talk to everyone who is in possession of some leverage [including] those who are de-facto controlling power structures,” he said. | |
| Speaking on Monday, Linkevičius said he had spoken to Tikhanovskaya, who was ready “to be very active in the political life of Belarus”. The opposition candidate, who fled to Lithuania after an apparent threat to her children, was initially “very depressed”, the foreign minister said. “But now she is in a good mood and she is ready to take action to take part.” |