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meIn Belarus, the ruler Alexandr Lukashenka met with several opposition prisoners and members of the coordinating council. The conversation in the remand prison of the KGB secret service lasted four and a half hours, reported on Saturday the Telegram channel “Pul Pervogo”, affiliated with Belarusian state television. Possible changes to the constitution were discussed, according to the opposition portal “Nexta”. Later, representatives of the opposition criticized that it was absurd to hold round tables in prison.
The most prominent opposition participant in the meeting was Viktor Babariko. The politician wanted to run against Lukashenka in the presidential election, but ended up in prison before the election campaign could actually begin.
A photo published by the state channel “Pul Pervogo” shows Lukashenka in a dark sweater arguing with the opposition at an oval table decorated with a flower arrangement. Silence had been agreed on the content, he said.
In Belarus, people have been protesting Lukashenka on a regular basis since the controversial presidential elections in early August. The president, who has been in power for more than a quarter of a century, claims the electoral victory after the polls in early August with a result of more than 80 percent. The EU does not recognize the outcome of the elections. The opposition in Belarus sees Svetlana Tichanovskaya as the real winner.
The channel “Pul Pervogo” initially only broadcast a short excerpt from the meeting. “Our country lives by the motto of being open to dialogue,” said Lukashenka, who had refused to speak to the opposition since the controversial presidential elections. “Half of you here are lawyers and you know that the constitution is not written on the street.” He tries to convince opposition supporters and the entire Belarusian society that we have to “look at the problem more broadly”.
Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaja assessed Lukashenka’s appearance in the KGB prison as a result of mounting social pressure on the ruler. With the meeting, Lukashenka admitted that members of the opposition, whom he had previously described as criminals, were political prisoners. “You don’t have a dialogue in a prison cell.” If Lukashenka had wanted to show his willingness to dialogue, he would have freed the opposition. Sergei Latuschko of the Coordination Council said that a round table on pretrial detention was “absurd”.
On Saturday, Tichanovskaya was allowed to speak with her husband, blogger Sergei Tichanowski, who is critical of the government, for the first time since her imprisonment. Tichanowski wanted to run against the ruler Alexandr Lukashenka in the presidential elections, but was rejected. It was the first conversation in 134 days, Tichanovskaya wrote to Telegram on Saturday. Her husband has been detained since the end of May. Tichanovskaya ran in his place in the elections and was the only member of the opposition to be admitted. After the presidential elections, he fled to Lithuania.
