MOSCOW. Sept 2 (Interfax) - Russia is not going to meet with representatives of the Belarusian opposition until it establishes an organization that will act in compliance with the law, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We treat the Republic of Belarus as a sovereign state. And we treat any entity that is being set up and declared there as an entity that must obey the law," Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday following talks with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, when asked about a possible meeting between Russian officials and the Belarusian opposition.
"We don't know how the [Belarusian opposition's] Coordination Council was formed. Many of those declared members of this council only learned about it after the fact, and some of them have already announced that they are quitting this organization," he said.
"We believe that under these conditions, there's no need for us to meet with the representatives who have requested such contacts until they formalize their entity in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus," Lavrov said.
Russia works with members of the opposition in different countries, but only "with opposition that functions in compliance with the law," he said.
"Another feature of the Coordination Council is that at some point, when the first demonstrations and the first clashes with law enforcement began, there were direct calls for law enforcement to break their oaths, change their oaths, and take the 'people's side,' as they put it, promising to pay them for it. It seems to me that that's already a criminal offence," Lavrov said.
"We know some of the names from this list that was announced as the composition of the Coordination Council," he said.
Some of these names are "associated with persons who stand for a cultural breakup with Russia, for the 'Belorusization' slogan, for limiting the use of the Russian language, with those who stand for less cooperation with organizations established on former Soviet soil, including the idea of withdrawing from the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, and joining NATO," Lavrov said.
"We also know the statements made by at least one of the Coordination Council's members that the Russians are 'mean,' and that Belarus was never Russia, but was always Poland," he said.
Supporters of former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya set up the Belarusian opposition's Coordination Council to facilitate the transfer of presidential power in the country by holding a new election.
The council's presidium includes Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, international mediator Liliya Vlasova, member of the strike committee at the Minsk Tractor Works Sergei Dylevsky, lawyer Maxim Znak, Tikhanovskaya's associate Olga Kovalkova, coordinator of unregistered presidential candidate Viktor Babariko's campaign staff Maria Kolesnikova, and former director of the Janka Kupala Theater and former diplomat Pavel Latushko.
Belarusian Prosecutor General Alexander Konyuk has described the Coordination Council's activity as unconstitutional and aimed at a power grab. A criminal case has been opened under Article 361 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, "Calls for Actions Aimed at Harming the National Security of the Republic of Belarus," punishable with up to five years in prison.
Protests against the official results of the presidential election have been ongoing in Belarus since the August 9 presidential election, in which incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, was declared the winner. According to the election results announced by the Belarusian Central Elections Commission, Lukashenko won 80.1% of the vote, and Tikhanovskaya received 10.12%.
Tikhanovskaya left Belarus and arrived in Lithuania several days after the election.