Answer from the Press secretary of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus A.Glaz to a question from News Agency «ТАSS» about statements by the US and the EU on the changed list of consular actions in Belarusian foreign missions

TASS: Have you paid attention to the statement of the US State Department and the EEAS spokesperson in connection with the change in the list of administrative procedures assigned to Belarusian embassies?

Аnatoly Glaz: We did not request them to do a legal examination of our legislative acts. Belarusians, in principle, do just fine without their valuable advice on how to live and build their independent state. The time for valuable guidance for us has passed somewhere with Bill Clinton.

By the way, this mantra – about supporting of our independence – is constantly being repeated by the State Department. At the same time, de facto, it allows itself to evaluate completely practical things of our internal legislation. This strange logic is probably intended for banana republics.

The United States is one of the world champions in the number of completely draconian norms of domestic legislation. Surveillance of citizens, groundless arrests, sanctioned torture, prisons beyond national jurisdiction, and so on. Not only we, but also the most civilized countries of the world have huge questions about all these.

USA, where today more than 1,106 “prisoners of the sixth of January” are being beaten in solitary confinement, where Stewart Rhodes, who had not even approached the Capitol, received 18 years in prison, allegedly for storming it, and Joseph Biggs, who did not touch anyone, gets 17 years, where an acting Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab, is being illegally detained in the prison, and where they give an 80-year prison sentence to Joshua Schulte just for telling the truth, has, in principle, no right to teach anyone democracy and human rights.

Our counter-partners suggested that the adoption of the Decree allegedly harms thousands of Belarusians. But at the same time, they slyly kept silent about the damage which their actions cause to millions of our compatriots. Entire sectors of the Belarusian economy with hundreds of thousands of employees are under illegal sanctions. Belarusians have been deprived of normal air traffic with Western countries. At the whim of the American leadership, even the sale of tickets for our citizens and aircraft maintenance are limited, the supply of important medical supplies for the treatment of Belarusians is limited, and electronic payments for businesses and between relatives on opposite sides of the border are difficult. Freight traffic with the EU is practically paralyzed with a huge number of workers in this industry; even the EU countries prevent Belarusians, and even their own citizens, from moving normally across the land border.

What can I say - simply obtaining Schengen and American entry visas for Belarusians is, excuse me, a quest that lasts for months, and is sometimes accompanied by frankly humiliating requirements and procedures. Why don’t they think about these consular functions and services instead?

So the statements by the State Department and the EEAS about their concern for Belarusian citizens are the height of cynicism. But if they want to talk about it, we are always ready. But for a mutually respectful dialogue only. Lecturing is not for us, not for an independent Belarus.

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