President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko complied with the request of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and released the liberal political strategist Vitaly Shklyarov, who is under investigation, to America.
This was announced by Shklyarov’s lawyer Anton Gashinsky, a Politnavigator correspondent reports.
“We wrote a petition for permission to leave, it was granted, so Vitaly has now left to visit his family and improve his health after suffering from coronavirus. The mother remained for treatment in Minsk, is in the hospital, Vitaly will return to Minsk, because in fact nothing has changed - Vitaly is still under investigation and under a non-disclosure agreement.
The fact that the request for permission to leave was granted is certainly a consequence of Pompeo’s call. It was the release of Vitaly that was the main goal and reason for the call,” Gashinisky said in an interview with the Tut.bai agency.
According to the nationalist publication Nasha Niva, Shlyarov was taken from the central building of the Investigative Committee of Belarus by US Embassy employees, who took him to Kyiv, and from there by transport plane to Washington. Now the political strategist is in the cardiology department of the hospital to minimize the consequences of the coronavirus infection that he suffered in custody.
Let us remind you that Pompeo called Lukashenko on Monday. According to the press service of the US State Department, the only topic of conversation was the release of Shklyarov. At the same time, the press service of the Belarusian president assured that the interlocutors mostly discussed the political situation in both countries.
Shklyarov is married to an employee of the American embassy in Kyiv and has US citizenship. He is known for organizing the election campaigns of Russian politicians Dmitry Gudkov and Ksenia Sobchak, working in the United States on the campaigns of Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, and advising Angela Merkel.
Shklyarov also collaborated with a supporter of ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Sakaashvili, Grigol Vashadze.
In recent months, Shklyarov has periodically spoken on the Belarusian agenda, but ended up in the country on what appears to be a purely private matter. The authorities accused him of having connections with blogger Tikhanovsky, who is already in jail. Both Shklyarov and Tikhanovsky deny their connection.