The senior Democrat of the foreign Affairs Committee in the U.S. Senate Robert Menendez has threatened sanctions, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and offered to hold new elections in the country. It is reported by RIA Novosti.
According to him, recent developments in bilateral relations between the U.S. and Belarus will cost nothing, while the Belarusian authorities will not count accurately the ballots or not to hold elections again.
Menendez added that if “the violence and the assault on democracy” continue, the US and Europe can quickly restore sanctions against Lukashenko and his associates. The Senator called the election “fake and tragedy.”
Earlier, U.S. Secretary of state Michael Pompeo stated that the U.S. believes elections in Belarus are neither free nor fair. Washington condemned the “continuing violence against protesters and detention of opposition supporters”, as well as blocking the Internet “for preventing the spread of Belarusian citizens to information”.
In Belarus for the second day, there are street clashes between security forces and protesters, unhappy with the results of the presidential elections on 9 August. According to exit polls, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko gained more than 80 percent of the vote, the opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovski — less than 10 percent. During street clashes used machinery, water cannons, stun grenades, rubber bullets, involved military forces. Detained about three thousand people, dozens injured.
