Belarus refuses American ambassador

Belarus Foreign Ministry spokesman Anatol Glaz said during an interview that was published on the ministry's website on August 11th that Minscu has also withdrew approval for the appointment of Julie Fischer as US ambassador to Belarus.

Taking into account that Belarus has lost confidence in the current American administration, we suspend co-operation for all projects, grants and new programmes co-ordinated by the US government until confidence return”, said Mr. Graz, adding that Minsk reserves the right to take additional action in the future.

Fischer, the first American ambassador to Belarus since 2008, was confirmed by the Senate in December 2020, but she has been unable to take her post in Minsk after the Belarusian government refuses to provide it with visas.

Graz's interview emerged after the United States, Britain and Canada announced new trade and financial sanctions on Belarus on August 9th, a year after presidential elections lasting Mr Lukaschenko's decades of rule, and sparked an unprecedented wave of protests amid allegations that the votes were manipulated.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, reacted to protests with a brutal blow. More than 32,000 people have been detained, thousands have been beaten by police in the streets and in detention, and there are suspicions that many have been tortured. Authorities have imprisoned some of the opposition leaders, some of whom have been forced to leave the country.

During an interview Tuesday, Fischer said last year's elections that triggered protests “represented a turning point in our view of events in Belarus”.

We saw the deceptive nature of those elections in a way we've never seen before. Evidence of counting manipulation, misuse of votes, unwillingness to accept international observers, all of this created a dynamic where the voice of people who refused those manipulated votes was extremely clear in 2020”, Fischer said.

In response, the United States, the European Union, Canada, Britain and other countries hit Lukashenko, its narrow circle, and the Belarusian firms with several rounds of sanctions, isolating it internationally and increasing the dependence on this country more than ever on Russian support. /voa