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Russia recognizes the presidential election in Belarus as legitimate and Alexander Lukashenko as the winner, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, citing BGNES.
In an interview broadcast on Russia-1 TV today, Putin said elections had taken place in the neighboring country.
“We recognized their legitimacy and, as you know, I congratulated Alexander Lukashenko for winning this election,” he recalled.
The Russian president suggested that the West’s position on the elections in Belarus had been prepared in advance. He argued that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had refused to send election observers, despite an invitation from the Belarusian authorities.
Putin is not yet planning a visit to Belarus, his press secretary Dmitry Peskov told TASS today.
According to official results, President Alexander Lukashenko won a new term in the August 9 elections in Belarus with 80% of the vote. However, these results were not recognized by the opposition, who launched protests.
32 people were arrested yesterday in Belarus for participating in illegal protests, the Belarusian Interior Ministry announced today, cited by TASS. They will be brought to justice for administrative offenses.
Several journalists from foreign media have been denied accreditation in Belarus. The move was taken by the Foreign Ministry on the basis of a decision by the Interdepartmental Commission for Information Security, the Belarusian Journalists Association said, citing TASS.
The accreditation of journalists representing the German television AER De, the Deutsche Welle media group, the British public television and radio BBC, Radio Liberty, the main news agencies Associated Press, Reuters and AFP, as well as other media.
