Uladzimir Matskevich: What happened was not a gesture of goodwill

The release of Andrei Sannikaw and Dzmitry Bandarenka was a necessary step of the Belarusian authorities, done under the pressure of the European community. This opinion was expressed by Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International...

The release of Andrei Sannikaw and Dzmitry Bandarenka was a necessary step of the Belarusian authorities, done under the pressure of the European community. This opinion was expressed by Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International consortium "EuroBelarus".

Commenting to the information service of "EuroBelarus” the release from prison of former presidential candidate Andrei Sannikaw and his friend and team-mate Dzmitry Bandarenka, Mr. Matskevich said the event had been expected.

"The conversations on that the release of political prisoners would begin, have been quite intensive already from the last week; there were signs that someone of them will be released on Easter. Of course, there was a hope that all political prisoners would be set free. However, the authorities released not all of them. This fact demonstrates that what happened was not a gesture of goodwill. The authorities had to take this step under pressure of the European community, of joint Belarusian democratic forces’ position. This was a demonstration of unwillingness to release political prisoners, a demonstration of the lack of goodwill; all these actions of the authorities annoy and irritate", shared feelings Uladzimir Matskevich.

However, such irritants are unlikely to go to the bad in the short term. In opinion of the "EuroBelarus” head of the Board, the normalization of relations between Belarus and the EU will not happen tomorrow. The authorities haven’t changed and they haven’t changed the attitude towards the situation. Therefore, they, most likely, will decide to continue negotiating with Europe on the fate of the remaining political prisoners.

Uladzimir Matskevich warmly congratulated Andrei Sannikaw and Dzmitry Bandarenka’ release and getting freedom, although a fairly conventional one. He wished them to recover and to return to their activity.