Belarus opposition leader meets Merkel

THE exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with Angela Merkel, the German chancncellor, in Berlin yesterday as European leaders sought to keep up the pressure on the r e g i me of Alexander Lukashenko.

In a clear message to Minsk, Mrs Tsikhanouskaya was given a working visit usually reserved for visiting heads of government.

“We need mediation i n Belarus between the opposition and the regime,” Mrs Tsikhanouskaya said ahead of the meeting.

“Protests in Belarus are not about a fight against Russia or in favour of Europe: they’re a result of an internal Belarusian crisis.”

Mrs Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to flee Belarus following August’s presidential election, is touring Europe as she seeks to maintain international force on Mr Lukashenko. Her meeting with Mrs Merkel follows talks with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, last week.

Britain and the European Union have refused to accept the official results of August ’s el e cti on, in which Mr Lukashenko claims a landslide victory.

Mr Tsikhanouskaya said her main aim remains is to persuade him to hold fresh presidential elections. “It’s important that they should be held as soon as possible since people have been living under pressure for 26 years and now they don’t want to do that any longer.”

She is also understood to have asked Mrs Merkel for international influence on the Lukashenko regime to secure the release of political prisoners in Belarus.

Among them are her husband, the blogger Sergei Tsikhanousky, who has been held in detention for four months, and her fellow opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova, who was jailed last month.

Ahead of the meeting, Mrs Tsikhanouskaya visited the former site of the Berlin Wall and compared its fall to the situation in her own country.