Belarussian MP Asks for Russian Asylum :: Charter'97 :: News

An opposition member of the Belarussian parliament has asked for political asylum in Russia. Sergei Skrebets, the leader of opposition parliamentary group Republic, said a fictitious case had been instigated against him in Belarus, the Gazeta.Ru website reported. Skrebets sent a letter to the Russian president Vladimir Putin via common mail because the secretariat of Belarussian parliament refused to render him governmental communications.

The MP said the Belarussian prosecution, President Alexander Lukashenko and other top officials have accused him publicly. “I think that one needs to live in Russia to remain living and acting in Belarussian politics,” the website quoted Skrebets’ letter. He said it is not capitulation but a move towards “new conditions of the fight”.

The Belarussian opposition has been protesting against a recent referendum allowing Lukashenko to run for a third presidential term. According to official information, 77.3 percent of the registered voters backed Lukashenko’s proposal to remove a constitutional provision limiting him to two terms. The vote will enable him to run again in 2006.

U.S. president George Bush signed a bill on Wednesday authorizing assistance for democratic and opposition movements in Belarus. It also applies economic sanctions against Russia’s western neighbor and closest CIS partner.