Raman Yakauleuski: EU inspectors to visit Minsk

Minsk will find it difficult to accept the EU conditions.

Political observer Raman Yakauleuski spoke to charter97.org about the visit of the Belarusian foreign minister to Brussels.

“I'd like to remind that Carl Bildt expressed a desire to listen to Makei and Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevicius praised the Belarusian foreign minister for keeping silence and listening to others without making usual attempts to teach them. I hope Makei's visit to Brussels didn't made anyone blind or deaf,” Raman Yakauleuski said.

There are signs that Makei's trip will be followed by visits of ordinary officials from the EU countries, including Brussels, to Minsk, he stresses.

“I think they will begin to appear this or next week. In my view, they will play a role of inspectors and make reports on Makei's speech, which content, by the way, we don't know, and the real changes of the situation,” the political observer said.

He noted that the Belarusian foreign minister was expected to attend the Eastern Partnership foreign ministers meeting in Yerevan in September.

“Brussels will have read reports of its inspectors to Minsk by this time. It's hard to forecast how it will end. I am not optimistic about the stance of official Minsk. In my opinion, it won't change, which doesn't satisfy Brussels. Political prisoners remain in jails. Their release and rehabilitation is the main condition. By the way, Makei says it's the 'ultimatum', but it is a condition. It is normal when relations are established on certain conditions. Official Minsk finds it difficult to fulfil them. It would prefer not to have them at all,” Raman Yakauleuski said.

Belarusian foreign minister Uladzimir Makei took part in the meeting of Eastern Partnership foreign ministers in Brussels on July 22. The EU recently suspended sanctions on the Belarusian foreign minister. The International Federation for Human Rights held a picket protesting against his visit to Brussels.