Belarusian opposition presented “New Belarus” passport in Warsaw

The Belarusian opposition presented the “New Belarus” passport to Warsaw, the Belarusian Service of Radio Liberty reports.

As Valery Kovalevsky, the international affairs representative of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, said, oppositionists are conducting negotiations with representatives of the European Union countries on the recognition of a new document that was developed taking into account “European traditions”. The design of the passport is similar to the passports of EU countries. It lacks information in Russian, which is officially the state language in Belarus.

They decided to develop the national passport of “New Belarus” after a large number of Belarusians who left the country after the mass repressions that began in 2020 faced the problem of exchanging passports through the current diplomatic missions of Belarus, which are subject to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.

The passport sample itself was presented as part of the “New Belarus 2023” conference held in Warsaw by the Office of former presidential candidate Svetlana Tykhanouskaya, the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus and the Opposition Coordination Council.

“At this conference, we will talk about what the new Belarus should be and how it can be achieved,” said Tykhanovskaya in her introductory speech. “We will talk about what reforms we need, about the methods of our struggle and ways of supporting our political prisoners , about what relations with neighbors should be and how to return Belarus to the map of Europe”.

“It is difficult to say at what point of this path we are – at the end or only at the very beginning. On this path we cannot avoid mistakes, burnout and mutual resentment. But we will overcome this path only together,” Tykhanovskaya summed up.

In turn, the representative for the transit period of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Pavel Latushko, noted that the situation in Belarus is “even worse than in 2020” – due to the large number of political prisoners, systematic repressions and the participation of the Lukashenko regime in aggression against Ukraine.

According to the opposition, there are now almost 1,800 political prisoners in Belarus, including 196 women and 8 minors. Based on this, one of the main goals of the democratic forces, according to Latushko, is their liberation, which is possible only when Lukashenko is removed from power, Belarus’s participation in the war against Ukraine is stopped, all Russian troops and bases are withdrawn from the territory of Belarus, as well as exit from ” of the Union State”, CSTO, EurAsEC and other interstate organizations.

Pavel Kukhta, a representative of the Kalinovsky regiment fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, also spoke at the conference. He called the opposition to the formation of a “national liberation movement”, the military center of which would be the regiment.

Ivan Kravtsov, a representative of the headquarters of one of the former presidential candidates of Belarus Viktor Babariko, now a political prisoner, noted that foreign politicians “who continue to meet with representatives of the Lukashenko regime”, as well as Western diplomats, “who are still present on the territory of Belarus”.

Valery Sakhashchyk, representative of defense and national security of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, added that Belarus should develop its foreign strategy taking into account other possible scenarios for the development of the situation in the region after the end of the war in Ukraine, including one if Ukraine loses its territories, which will remain under Russian control.

“Then Russia will only strengthen its influence and expansion into Belarus,” Sakhashchik said, suggesting that “the West will take a position of containment – that’s all,” and the tasks that the Belarusian opposition sets before itself “will become seriously complicated.”

“I would suggest preparing for exactly such events,” Sahaschyk summarized.

• Last spring, a number of representatives of the Russian opposition proposed to develop some temporary documents for the citizens of the country who left Russia and are opposed to the war. The idea of ​​the so-called “passport of a good Russian” was not implemented, remaining at the stage of discussions in social networks.