Before we finish: the United States agreed to play multi-vector with Lukashenko
Julie Fischer will be confirmed as US Ambassador to Minsk by the old Senate, but the emerging administration of Joseph Biden will not prevent this.
This opinion was expressed on the air of the American Radio Liberty by former Belarusian diplomat Valery Kovalevsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I think they will do this, despite the fact that there is some kind of contradiction regarding the legitimacy of Lukashenko’s presidency. Nevertheless, the United States is interested in continuing the dialogue with Belarus. Maybe in a limited format.
They are not ready for such a drastic move as stopping the exchange of ambassadors, and they assume that their ambassador on the spot will do more work than if they had not sent him,” Kovalevsky said.
In his opinion, a political signal in the form of refusal to appoint an ambassador will not be effective enough to promote US interests in Belarus.
The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the candidacy of Deputy Secretary of State Julie Fisher for the post of Ambassador to Belarus back in September.
Fisher worked in 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.
Reports about Fisher's possible appointment as ambassador to Belarus appeared in the American media in February immediately after the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Minsk. Apparently, he agreed on this candidacy with the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.
The restoration of diplomatic representation between the United States and Belarus at the ambassadorial level was announced back in September 2019.
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.
As Freedom House representative Sofia Orloski said, expanding the staff of the American embassy in Minsk will allow increasing financial assistance to non-governmental organizations working against the Belarusian authorities and the idea of integration with Russia.
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