EU calls for new elections in Belarus

Bloomberg

The European Union called for new elections to be held in Belarus, just as President Alexander Lukashenko makes plans to travel to Moscow in the coming weeks to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, wrote in Journal du Dimanche that a new ballot is needed, with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) overseeing the process.
The EU has rejected Lukashenko’s claim of a landslide victory in the August 9 election and criticised the subsequent police crackdown.
The 27-nation bloc agreed to impose sanctions on Belarusian officials suspected of aiding vote fraud and participating in the violence.
“In the meantime, we can’t just express our worries,” Borrell wrote in the opinion piece. “We need to sanction those who are responsible if the EU wants to be coherent.”
Putin, Lukashenko’s closest ally, has said the election
outcome was legitimate and offered to send police officers to the former Soviet republic.
Putin also said OSCE
observers had declined an invitation to monitor the election. The two leaders will meet in the coming weeks, according to a statement from the Kremlin.
Violence has been on the rise in recent days and a mass demonstration was planned for Sunday in Minsk.
“This conflict does not pit Europe against Russia, but Belarus against its leaders,” Borrell wrote. “Protesters who are denying election results don’t wave the EU flag, but the country’s former flag.”
The EU has been walking a fine line in its approach to
the contested election, not wanting to incite the situation or to give Putin an excuse to get more involved.
The EU representative’s careful stance echoed comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Friday said a Russian intervention in Belarus would be “the worst.”