March 5, Pozirk. It is essential to establish new connections between Ukraine and Belarus and to sever Belarus’ current ties with Russia, opposition politician and former presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka said yesterday at the European Parliament’s event, Belsat reported.
Belarus is “part of Europe’s security,” the politician stressed. European security is impossible while Belarus is under Russian influence, he added.
Babaryka of the Razam party, established in 2020, also said he would focus on lobbying for the release of designated Belarusian political prisoners, an end to reprisals and efforts to ensure that European governments recognize that the Belarusian people are not represented by Alaksandar Łukašenka’s regime.
Representatives of nine Belarusian democratic parties, shut down in Belarus after the 2020 crackdown on the opposition, attended yesterday’s event in Brussels, organized by the 8+100 platform fostering cooperation between Belarusian democratic forces and European political parties.
Babaryka spent more than five years in prison before being released last December along with 123 other prisoners as part of Minsk’s deal with Washington. He had been convicted of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in prison, but his supporters say the charges were intended to prevent him from running in the 2020 presidential race, which he could have won.
Earlier, Babaryka said that his goal was a “non-Russian, nuclear-free and democratic” Belarus.
