Updated at 14:31,18-11-2024

Yakauleuski: Free visa regime between Belarus and EU impossible today

Tamara Savich, Euroradio

Political commentator explains why our country will not make concessions to the European Union.

Belarus and the European Union may cancel the visa regime, says the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But this process can begin only when the country releases all political prisoners (the most famous of them - former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich).

Political commentator Raman Yakauleusky explains to Euroradio why such a measure is impossible today:

"That's impossible. The main obstacle, I think, (no one speaks about it, other than [Foreign Minister] Makey) is in the position of the official Minsk that all [Belarusians] should have equal rights. What is meant here? The main requirement is that everyone has a visa, us and Lukashenka."

Yakauleu believes that the main agenda of the official Minsk is to cancel the "black list" of the European Union. And the EU wants the release of the political prisoners, whom the Belarusian authorities do not recognize as such, calling them "criminals".

"We are all "hostages to the black list," concludes the political commentator.