Belarus: Roman Protasevich

Lord Russell of Liverpool Excerpts

Tuesday 25th May 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con) [V]]

I thank the noble Lord for his comments and strongly agree.

[Lord Russell of Liverpool (CB)]

I am sure the Minister will also agree with President Michel of the EU, who is obviously a past master in the art of irony and described Minsk’s approach as “playing Russian roulette”. I had the privilege of being part of a team monitoring the parliamentary election in Belarus, and I witnessed the 64 year-old President Lukashenko appoint his 22 year-old mistress, a former Miss Belarus, to parliament as an MP. That is his definition of democracy. I also point the Minister to the website of the embassy of Belarus to the United Kingdom, where it points out that we take third place after Russia and Ukraine for exports and third place after Russia and Cyprus for imports. So I suggest that our Government deal closely with the Governments of Cyprus and the Ukraine in unison and hit Belarus where it hurts.

[Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Con) [V]]

My Lords, on the rigged election, the UK welcomed the hugely important report by Professor Benedek and supported all the recommendations, which is why we have called for fresh elections that meet international standards. We are considering next steps on further international investigations. I take the noble Lord’s point in relation to hitting Belarus where it hurts.