MINSK, 29 January (BelTA) - Belarus felt the brutal impact and interference of a number of international actors in the electoral process, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maksim Ryzhenkov said in an interview with Izvestia, BelTA has learned.
“I can assess the election first of all as a voter. In general, the voting was held at a very high level. Security was ensured, and both the internal affairs minister and the deputy minister confirmed. All necessary conditions and a calm environment were created for the voters, so that they could cast their votes without any coercion,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
“From the point of view of international security, I can tell you that if anyone decided to attack us at all, they would not be back for more, and the president would respond in the same way. In fact, we felt the influence and even, perhaps, gross influence of a number of international actors, interference, simply put, in our election campaigns,” the minister said.
First of all, according to him, it concerns the key European institutions, which took the course of non-recognition of the elections in Belarus. “They have long realized how the situation in our country is developing, how stable the social, political and economic line is being pursued and that the incumbent head of state will win if citizens are provided with a real choice. But this is not part of their plans,” the diplomat stressed.
“Today, the whole matrix of recognition or non-recognition of elections in Western countries comes down to whether the right candidates win, who will then bring this or that country into the zone of governance or influence of the collective West. If this is not the case, then immediately a whole bunch of labels are put on this state, like, for example, the elections were not democratic, there was no pluralism of opinions and so on. Even if the situation is calm today, even if the legislation allows holding these elections and all the conditions have been created administratively, believe me, they will still find something to criticize,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
At the same time, he emphasized that the external influence had no effect on the Belarusians: “We saw for ourselves that people were ready to come and vote for the preservation of the stable system that the country has. As our president says, we hold elections for our people. The most important indicator of the success of elections is our people, the percentage that came to the polling stations and the percentage that voted for the incumbent president of our country.”
“I can assess the election first of all as a voter. In general, the voting was held at a very high level. Security was ensured, and both the internal affairs minister and the deputy minister confirmed. All necessary conditions and a calm environment were created for the voters, so that they could cast their votes without any coercion,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
“From the point of view of international security, I can tell you that if anyone decided to attack us at all, they would not be back for more, and the president would respond in the same way. In fact, we felt the influence and even, perhaps, gross influence of a number of international actors, interference, simply put, in our election campaigns,” the minister said.
First of all, according to him, it concerns the key European institutions, which took the course of non-recognition of the elections in Belarus. “They have long realized how the situation in our country is developing, how stable the social, political and economic line is being pursued and that the incumbent head of state will win if citizens are provided with a real choice. But this is not part of their plans,” the diplomat stressed.
“Today, the whole matrix of recognition or non-recognition of elections in Western countries comes down to whether the right candidates win, who will then bring this or that country into the zone of governance or influence of the collective West. If this is not the case, then immediately a whole bunch of labels are put on this state, like, for example, the elections were not democratic, there was no pluralism of opinions and so on. Even if the situation is calm today, even if the legislation allows holding these elections and all the conditions have been created administratively, believe me, they will still find something to criticize,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.
At the same time, he emphasized that the external influence had no effect on the Belarusians: “We saw for ourselves that people were ready to come and vote for the preservation of the stable system that the country has. As our president says, we hold elections for our people. The most important indicator of the success of elections is our people, the percentage that came to the polling stations and the percentage that voted for the incumbent president of our country.”
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