U.S. embassy denies charges it is trying to destabilize Belarus government :: Charter'97 :: News

The U.S. embassy in Minsk on Monday rejected a Belarusian official`s allegations that Washington was trying to destabilize the ex-Soviet nation. "The United States doesn`t seek to destabilize, threaten or undermine the Belarusian state and continues to respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Belarus," the embassy said in statement. "The United States encourages and supports the free, democratic process in Belarus as elsewhere and orients its assistance to those Belarusian organizations that seek help in facilitating the democratic process."

The U.S. embassy statement follows remarks by Vasily Dementei, the first deputy chief of Belarus` security agency still known by its Soviet name of KGB. "The facts prove that the basic goal of the security services of foreign nations, in particular the United States, is to destabilize the political situation in the our country ... up to the point of intervention," Dementei told lawmakers on Thursday.

President Alexander Lukashenko routinely accuses political opponents and foreign forces of plotting to unseat him with the same kind of protests that helped bring opposition leaders to power in the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan over the past two years.

Lukashenko has led the nation of 10 million people since 1994, reintroducing Soviet symbols, disbanding parliament, closing independent media and maintaining rigid Soviet-style state controls over the economy. Many opposition leaders have been jailed or have disappeared.
The United States and other Western nations have called Lukashenko "Europe`s last dictator."