Andrei Sannikov: “Flirting with dictator won't solve our problems”

Andrei Sannikov, a well-known Belarusian opposition politician, said in an interview with Tagesspiegel (Germany) that “the EU is losing the battle for its values”.

“The EU should think more about the events in the country and dictator Lukashenka, who has no plans about liberalisation, rather than about commercial interests in Belarus,” Sannikov thinks. The opposition politician supposed that “improving relations with the dictatorship meets only the interests of business representatives”.

According to Tagesspiegel, Sannikov accuses the EU of lack of logic. “As everybody knows, the EU imposed sanctions after the mass protests in December 2010. They were lifted already in early 2012, though the human rights situation only deteriorated.”

Europe, Sannikov thinks, “has many instruments to influence the situation in Belarus”. “The EU should recall its values and begin to consistently support democratic movements and people of Belarus. They should work out a strategy that would base on the real European values rather than on economic interests.”

Besides the demands to release political prisoners “it is necessary to soften the visa regime for young Belarusians,” the politician is confident. The opposition member called on Europe to support relatives and families of political prisoners as well as the independent media. “Flirting with the dictator won't solve our problems,” Sannikov underlined.