Alexander Lukashenko is called illegitimate president in the EU

For more than a month, thousands of protests against the results of the presidential elections held on August 9 have been going on in Belarus. Long-term head of state Alexander Lukashenko, who has held this post since 1994, was officially declared the winner again. The opposition did not recognize the election results announced by the authorities, calling them falsified. Most Western countries have come to the same opinion, the Baltic countries have taken the toughest position.

“President Lukashenko is not the legitimate president of Belarus”, - the Interfax news agency quoted Josep Borrell as saying at the plenary session of the European Parliament . It is already known that the EU sanctions against Belarus will be adopted before the European Council, which is scheduled for September 24-25. The sanctions will be targeted and aimed at a large number of "those responsible for the repression". However, the EU promised to overestimate and partially freeze relations with Belarus and in certain sectors. Also, the EU intends to allocate 53 million euros to support the Belarusian civil society.

Alexander Lukashenko himself left the country last day for the first time since the beginning of the protests and flew to Sochi to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Their negotiations went on in private for more than four hours, but there were no statements or signing documents following the results. Vladimir Putin only promised that Russia would provide Belarus with a loan of $ 1.5 billion, the Kommersant newspaper notes. Also, according to the agreements between the heads of the two states, the reserve of Russian security officials, previously created and deployed at the Belarusian border in case of an aggravation of the situation in Belarus, is returning to the places of deployment.

The presidential candidate of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is considered by the opposition to be the winner of the elections, has published an appeal to Vladimir Putin . It says that any agreements between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, reached during the negotiations on September 14 in Sochi, will not have legal force.