There are no grounds for easing the sanctions policy against Belarus. This was stated by the head of the International Policy Department of the Office of the President of Poland Marcin Przydacz.
"Of course, the issue of political prisoners is extremely important, and it is necessary to do everything possible through diplomatic channels to release these people. And here Poland has done a lot: thanks to our good contacts with the American administration, we managed to convince the Americans to join the work in this direction and achieve the release of, among others, Andrei Poczobut and many others. Of course, the Americans also acted within their own interests," he said.
According to him, European diplomats also need to intensify their activities on this issue.
"However, today I see no reason to change the sanctions policy, unless the Belarusian authorities really begin to change their domestic and foreign policies. At the moment, I do not see any readiness on the part of Minsk for such serious changes," Pshidach said.
At the same time, he called himself a supporter of a hard line against official Minsk and noted that the Belarusian authorities "had the opportunity to normalize relations with Poland."
"The price of this for Belarus was not excessively high. We expected quite obvious things: an end to the persecution of the opposition, the creation of conditions for the exercise of freedom of speech, we wanted not to persecute the Polish minority. Alexander Lukashenko has not fulfilled any of these conditions. Therefore, today there is no reason for Poland to change its policy," he said.
In addition, in his opinion, it was the sanctions that made it possible to create tools that can now be used in negotiations with the Belarusian authorities.
"In order to talk about possible warming today, we needed a starting point. For example, in order for the Americans to be able to discuss the release of political prisoners in exchange for the lifting of sanctions from Belavia Airlines, Belavia had to fall under these sanctions first," Pshidach believes.
The Polish official said that earlier Warsaw had allegedly already tried to pursue a softer policy towards official Minsk. According to him, then there was a "slight liberalization" in Belarus, including in relation to the Polish minority.
"But Alexander Lukashenko chose a different path and began to brutally oppress not only his citizens. Poland reacted accordingly by imposing sanctions. I remember it well, because I was responsible for the preparation of these sanctions packages in Warsaw. And it was no longer just about actions against its citizens — a hybrid operation was launched, in fact, an operation of aggression against Poland on the Belarusian-Polish border," Pshidach said.
The representative of the Office of the President of Poland stressed that even if Washington continues to ease some restrictions on Belarus, this does not mean an automatic change in the policy of the European Union.
"And today the situation is such that even after the lifting of certain sanctions, some things still remain impossible, because they depend on Europe — on us, on the European Union, on Poland, on our voice — and not just on Washington's voice," he said.
At the same time, Pshidach noted that the White House had never put pressure on Warsaw on these issues.
Recall that over the past few years, Poland has been pursuing a frankly unfriendly policy towards Belarus, including supporting local radicals and extremists. Until recently, all attempts by Minsk to bring Warsaw to the negotiating table were unsuccessful. However, over the past year, there has been a definite shift in Belarusian-Polish relations, and in September, for the first time in several years, the foreign ministers of the two countries met.