Nemtsov: Lukashenka uses Poroshenko to resume contacts with EU and US

The Belarusian dictator wants sanctions to be lifted from him.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka wants to resume contacts with the EU and the US with the help of president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and member of the Yaroslavl Council, said it to 112 Ukraine TV channel.

“Lukashenka has another aim. He wants to use Poroshenko to resume contacts with Europe and America. I think his main aim is to persuade Poroshenka to become Lukashenka's lobbyist in the West and help him,” the politician said. “It's clear that Luakshenka is a pariah and dictator, not the last but second to last after Putin. Lukashenka has a very simple aim: he will say right words about the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. By the way, he was repeating all the time that he didn't recognise the annexation of Crimea. In exchange for his words, he would like Poroshenko to help lift sanctions from himself and his cronies, who are involved in the repression against political prisoners, crackdown on journalists and so on,” Nemtsov thinks.

According to him, Poroshenko faces a “risky task”. “It is a risky task for Poroshenko. It's not easy to defend the dictator and lobby his interests in the West,” the Russian opposition member concludes.

Lukashenka paid a visit to Kyiv and met with president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.