Landsbergis: Lithuania has preconditions for dialogue with Belarus

“We have preconditions. Not even for dialogue, but simply as one of the preconditions: stopping the flow of migrants. You must also resign and hold new elections, but we will be able to speak here later,” G. Landsbergis told reporters at the Seimas on Tuesday.

The minister spoke about this after Belarus’ unrecognized President Aliaksandr Lukashenko said that Minsk was willing to resume dialogue with Vilnius, but without preconditions.

Lithuania has recently faced an increase in illegal immigration from Belarus. As a result, a state of emergency has been declared in the country, as well as the decision to turn on arrivals.

This year, more than 4,000 people entered Lithuania through the border with Belarus. migrants. Lithuanian officials call their growing flows a hybrid aggression from the Minsk regime.

Lukashenko told a news conference on Monday that he could step down as president “very soon.”

The head of Lithuanian diplomacy stated that he doubted the sincerity of the unrecognized leader.

“If this is what the Belarusian opposition is talking about: withdrawing and holding new internationally recognized elections, then it is understandable, but if it is a simulated withdrawal by creating a council and becoming its president, de facto controlling the state , then there is no withdrawal ”, commented G. Landsbergis.

He stressed that the European Union must continue to take the position that “as long as Lukashenko is in power, we will not recognize him.”

Last August, the controversial presidential election, the winner of which has been declared by Lukashenko since 1994, has sparked a wave of massive protests for several months. Western countries and the opposition consider the vote to be false.

The Minsk regime has suppressed these riots by brutal means: more than 35,000 people have been arrested. thousands of people were beaten by the police.

Advocates point out that there are more than 600 political prisoners in Belarus.