Belarus refused to accept the American ambassador, who was already holed up in Lithuania
Belarus withdrew its consent to the appointment of Julie Fisher as US Ambassador to Minsk
In addition, the American diplomatic mission was proposed to reduce its number to 5 people. The day before yesterday, the United States introduced new sanctions against Belarus.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“As for the American side, our response to their unfriendly and even aggressive actions was substantively communicated today at the Foreign Ministry during a meeting with Chargé d’Affaires Ruben Harutyunyan. It’s a pity that the arrogant and openly hostile actions of the American side, as well as the actions of some of its representatives that completely do not fall under the concept of diplomacy and professionalism, destroyed the achievements of their predecessors,” said Foreign Ministry press secretary Anatoly Glaz.
Julie Fisher, appointed US Ambassador to Minsk at the end of last year, did not present her credentials to President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, but was in Vilnius and Warsaw, actively meeting with representatives of political emigration.
“This ambassador is of no use, and in Lithuania, at Tikhanovskaya’s court, this US citizen can be present without the appropriate approval of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry,” Belarusian political scientist Alexander Shpakovsky wrote in his Telegram channel.
Before her appointment in Minsk, Fisher worked at the US embassies in Tbilisi under President Saakashvili and in Kyiv under President Yushchenko. She was Chargé d'Affaires of the United States in Russia.
Minsk recalled its ambassador to America in 2008 after the United States imposed sanctions against Belarus in response to Minsk’s refusal to release oppositionist and ex-presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin from the colony. At the same time, the head of the American diplomatic mission in Belarus, Karen Stewart, was asked to leave the country.
In April 2019, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei officially informed the US State Department George Kent about the lifting of restrictions on the number of embassy employees in Minsk.
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