US Deputy Assistant Secretary meets with Mikalai Statkevich and Andrei Sannikau

Robert Berschinski met with former political prisoners and presidential candidates of Belarus in Warsaw.

Andrei Sannikau, leader of "European Belarus", informed charter97.org.

- Robert Berschinski congratulated Mikalai Statkevich on his release, he told. - In his words, it was very important and glad news. Mikalai Statkevich, in turn, thanked the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and the American authorities, who fought for the release of all political prisoners, for the principled position on the issue. They discussed in details the situation in Belarus in the light of the upcoming "elections". We explained that the election institute in the country had been destroyed and that time it was a cynical event under strict organization. Real candidates do not and even cannot participate in the "elections". We also discussed American-Belarusian relations, and their future. We stressed that the only possible deadlock recovery, the regime had pushed the country into, were fair elections with the participation of the regime's opponents. It should be the aim of both of the Belarusian society and our friends from democratic countries.

Robert Berschinski is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour .