The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Senate adopted a resolution in which it calls on the American authorities, together with allies, to increase pressure on the Belarusian authorities.

This was announced on Twitter by the chairman of the committee, Bob Menendez.

The text of the document was published on the website of the US Congress.

“The Senate welcomes the close coordination of the efforts of the United States government with the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and other allied and partner countries, as well as international organizations to promote the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights in Belarus, calls for further coordination of efforts to maximize pressure on the Lukashenka regime, ”the text of the resolution says.

The resolution states that “the United States supports the people of Belarus in their desire to preserve their sovereignty, the ability to choose their leadership,” and also that the Senate “takes into account the extensive work that the Belarusian opposition is doing to

coordinating efforts with the United States, OSCE and UN to ensure free and fair elections for our people ”.

The document also says that the US Senate still "refuses to recognize Alexander Lukashenko as the legitimately elected leader of Belarus."

"The Senate calls for new presidential and parliamentary elections in Belarus to be held in such a way that they are free and fair in accordance with OSCE standards and are supervised by its observers, as well as independent internal observers," the resolution says.

Democratic pressure

Relations between Washington, the EU and Minsk have escalated after the presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020.

According to the Central Election Commission of the republic, Alexander Lukashenko won with 80.1% of the vote.

Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya gained 10.1%. 

The Belarusian opposition refused to recognize the election results, accusing the authorities of falsifying the voting results, and Tikhanovskaya declared herself the winner.

Mass protest actions began in the country, which escalated into riots and clashes with law enforcement officers.

  • Protests against the results of the presidential elections in Belarus in 2020

  • AP

The leaders of the United States and a number of European countries also did not recognize the result of the elections.

Several packages of sanctions were introduced against Belarus.

A new round of exacerbation between Minsk and Western countries began in May this year after the incident with the landing of a Ryanair passenger plane in Minsk.

Soon, the EU imposed sectoral economic sanctions on Belarus, in addition to the existing restrictions imposed after the 2020 presidential elections and subsequent opposition protests.

The US administration, for its part, expanded sanctions against Belarus in August this year.

On the day of the anniversary of the Belarusian presidential elections

the corresponding decree was signed by President Joe Biden.

In a White House statement on the new sanctions, it was noted that Minsk's actions allegedly pose a "threat to US national security."

In turn, the British government announced that it is introducing a ban on the import of potash fertilizers and petroleum products from Belarus.

Canada also joined the sanctions.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the new restrictive measures, noted that “the only thing the West is striving for, which disdainfully ignores the results of the expression of the will of the Belarusian people, is the change of power in Belarus”.

“The entire arsenal of Cold War methods is being used in the form of building up external political and informational pressure, introducing an air embargo, using sports for political purposes up to the financial and economic strangulation of the state.

The unilateral measures introduced by the USA, Great Britain and Canada run counter to the UN Charter and the norms of international law, their OSCE commitments, ”the Belarusian foreign ministry said.

Mode change

Representatives of the Belarusian opposition who left the country after the events of August 2020 have repeatedly called on Washington to impose sectoral sanctions on Belarus and increase pressure on Minsk. So, in December 2020, The Washington Post published an article on behalf of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, which contained an appeal to the American Senate with a request to pass a bill as soon as possible that would give the US President additional powers to impose sanctions against Belarus.

In July 2021, Tikhanovskaya in the United States met with high-ranking representatives of the Biden administration - US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Presidential Adviser for National Security Jake Sullivan.

The American media reported that at this meeting she also asked for new sectoral sanctions against Belarus.

The opposition leader backed up her request with the words that the United States has a certain "moral duty" to support the Belarusians.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya also met with US President Joe Biden.

The American side did not specify what was discussed at the meeting, but Tikhanovskaya said in her Telegram channel that “she called on President Biden to help us make Belarus a successful example of a non-violent transition to democracy”.

  • Svetlana Tikhanovskaya

  • AP

  • © Czarek Sokolowski

In a commentary to RT, Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted that the resolution of the US Senate committee on pressure on Belarus is a routine confirmation of Washington's foreign policy directed against Russia's allies.

“Minsk is an ally of Moscow and has good relations with Beijing, and everything that is pressure on Russia and China in the opinion of American senators is good,” the expert noted.

The political scientist drew attention to the part of the resolution, which spoke about the positive assessment of the US Senate "support from the governments of Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland, aimed at helping the people of Belarus, including assistance to the political opposition, receiving political refugees and promoting freedom of the media."

In fact, this is an admission that Washington is carrying out activities to change the regime in Belarus, the expert said.

“This is exactly how it should be understood.

The United States financed a significant part of the programs related to the deployment of the Belarusian opposition in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

This is partly done for the money of these countries, but partly for the money of Washington, so that the American senators reported to themselves about their subversive work, "Nikolai Mezhevich emphasized.

The appearance of this resolution should not surprise anyone, since neither the EU countries nor the United States are going to recognize the legitimacy of President Lukashenko, Pavel Feldman, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of RUDN University, said in an interview with RT.

"As for the speculative rhetoric that sounds in this resolution, it is also quite predictable and characteristic of American senators, since their professional function is precisely to make loud statements, and for this they receive their salaries," he said. political scientist.

The adoption of such resolutions is a consequence of calls to impose sanctions against their own country and people, Feldman said.

“But at the same time, the people who adopted this resolution are well aware that it will not in any way affect the institution of the presidency in Belarus, and moreover, no presidential or parliamentary elections will be held ahead of schedule.

But the task is to slowly stifle Belarus by sanctions, and these political statements are likely to be followed by a US President's decree on the introduction of additional sanctions against Lukashenka and Belarus, ”the political scientist believes.

The purpose of such pressure from the United States is to change the political regime in Minsk to a pro-Western one, said the interlocutor of RT.

“Naturally, the fate of ordinary Belarusians, as well as the fate of the inhabitants of Afghanistan, does not concern the United States absolutely, and the only meaning of the implementation of foreign policy towards Belarus is an attempt to turn it into a second Ukraine.

This is done in order to create another region with an anti-Russian orientation near the western borders of Russia and at the same time to persuade the Belarusians to Russophobic sentiments, to sow discord between peoples in order to prevent the implementation of the principle of the Union State and the construction of a single economic and security system " , - said Pavel Feldman.

Today the world is returning to the old block system, the expert stated.

“The United States, of course, would love to see this republic (Belarus. -

RT

) among its loyal subjects, such as the Baltic countries, Ukraine, Poland and some other states today.

But today there are no prerequisites for the plans of the Americans to be crowned with success, "the interlocutor of RT concluded.