In today’s plenary debate on the systematic repression in Belarus, ECR Foreign Affairs coordinator Anna Fotyga urged EU lawmakers to remain extremely vigilant towards the actions of both dictators Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Furthermore, she recommended that the EU pressure both Russian and Belarusian governments to cooperate with the international community and abandon their aggressive behaviour towards their own populations and neighbouring countries.

Speaking during the debate, Fotyga, also ex-Foreign Minister of Poland, said:

We see collaboration between dictators Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko in all of this. In particular, my country Poland, and our neighbour Lithuania, are targets of what I clearly see as elements of hybrid warfare perpetrated by Lukashenko against us. The aeroplane belonging to Ryanair was, from a formal point of view, a Polish aeroplane. Likewise, the other provocative incident against a Russian opposition leader also targeted a Polish aeroplane.

She added:

Lukashenko, the illegitimate and illegal President of Belarus, increases his grip around and violence against his own society almost every day. We see it in the way people react to his atrocities. Many of those imprisoned by the regime are even trying to commit suicide. We have to react.

Source: ECR