Makei: The Belarusian government will not participate in the OSCE's Moscow Mechanism

Vladimir Makei said: “The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has become involved upon the initiative of the European Union. As if this organization had no other, more urgent matters to attend to. It was suggested that the so-called Moscow Mechanism should be used against Belarus. We dealt with a situation like that in 2011. I think we can deal with this situation now as well. The mechanism provides for setting up some expert group and for sending it to Belarus for the sake of studying the situation in the area of human rights. The Belarusian government has no intention of participating in the implementation of this mechanism.”

Vladimir Makei also stressed that Belarus is dead against such approaches as well as proposals on all kinds of external mediation designed to encourage the government to establish a dialogue with the opponents while it is not exactly clear what they are.

“Thanks to our European partners, members of the European Union we now see attempts to use various international platforms to coerce Belarus. But I am convinced that – the history of the past confirms it – Belarus will calmly endure and we will find adequate answers to the challenges we face today. Unfortunately, for some reason when my colleagues and I talked about possible development of the situation in Belarus, the situation after the presidential election in Belarus, everyone absolutely agreed that any elections relating to the evolutionary growth of the country are much better than revolutions in city streets through chaos and anarchy. But for some reason right after the election my colleagues changed their point of view on the matter. It is absolutely unacceptable for us,” Vladimir Makei concluded.