US decision to ban entry shocked Belarusian opposition
Citizens of Belarus may be prohibited from entering the United States.
Politico reported this with reference to sources, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Belarus will be included in the list of countries whose citizens may pose a risk, along with Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.
Since 2017, the list has included Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Its final version will be announced on January 27.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry does not comment on American media reports.
“The Foreign Ministry did not receive any official notification from the American side. We will not comment on the media report,” Deputy Head of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andrey Shuplyak told TUT.BY.
The announcement of the entry ban shocked the pro-Western Belarusian opposition, which hopes for warmer relations with the United States as an incentive for the authorities to break off allied relations with Russia.
Political scientist Artem Shrayban explains the possible US decision as “absurdity.”
“Trump introduced these restrictions a couple of years ago for Muslim countries. Then he was told that this was a little discrimination and he added a couple more eternal outcasts like Venezuela and North Korea to the list. But you need to show the electorate that you are a cowboy and fight against migrants again, elections are coming soon. Therefore, they automatically pulled up a list of the following rogue countries, in which, from old memory, we also hang.
The fact that the left hand (the US State Department) is working to unfreeze relations with Minsk, and the second hand (the presidential administration) does not care about this is not surprising. One department employs professionals, the other employs people recruited by Trump,” Shreibman wrote in his Telegram channel.
Perhaps the embarrassment with visas for Minsk, which is demonstrating its new loyalty, will be resolved by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose visit on February 1 is reported by Radio Liberty.
Previously, it was expected that Pompeo would tour the CIS countries in early January. However, after the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the visits were cancelled.
It is planned that Pompeo will be in Kyiv on January 30 and February 1, from there he will come to Minsk, on February 1-2 he will fly to Nur-Sultan, and on February 2-3 he will be in Tashkent. This will be the first visit by a US Secretary of State in the entire history of independent Belarus. Washington does not hide the fact that they want to improve relations “with one of the last countries completely under the influence of Moscow.”
In August, US Presidential Advisor John Bolton met first with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, and then in Warsaw with the secretaries of the security councils of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. The Ukrainian media started talking about the creation of a “new Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth” as a counterweight to Russia. Immediately after this visit, US President Donald Trump announced Bolton's resignation.
At the same time, in September it was announced that the diplomatic mission between the United States and Belarus would be restored at the ambassadorial level. 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 of this year, 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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