Biden meets with Belarusian opposition chief on the White Home

“I used to be honored to satisfy with @Tsihanouskaya on the White Home this morning. The US stands with the folks of Belarus of their quest for democracy and common human rights,” Biden tweeted, together with a photograph of the 2 in dialog with masks.

In a subsequent tweet, the Tikhanovskaya thanked Biden “for a strong signal of solidarity with hundreds of thousands of fearless Belarusians who’re peacefully preventing for his or her freedom.”

As a part of her bigger tour across the US over the past two weeks, Tikhanovskaya has met with quite a lot of administration officers, together with White Home nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) Administrator Samantha Energy and US Company for World Media (USAGM) performing CEO Kelu Chao.

Bipartisan members of the newly fashioned “Associates of Belarus Caucus” mentioned in a letter to Biden final month that he ought to meet with Tikhanovskaya, saying such a gathering would “ship a message to Lukashenko, his allies, and the world that america is not going to tolerate such political repressions and state-sponsored violence which have taken place in Belarus.”

However Tikhanovskaya’s assembly the with President had not been beforehand confirmed. Two weeks in the past, a senior administration official mentioned “senior officers on the White Home look ahead to assembly Ms. Tsikhanouskaya subsequent week when she is in Washington. The US stands together with her and the folks of Belarus, and can proceed to assist their democratic aspirations.”

Tsikhanouskaya beforehand known as on the administration to problem stronger sanctions, giving the Biden administration a specific list of entities to target. She mentioned earlier this month that the record consists of firms which can be monopolized by the regime of Belarus’ strongman President Alexander Lukashenko “and his cronies,” together with Belaruskali potash in addition to oil, wooden and metal enterprises.

Sanctions and assist for civil society have been introduced up throughout her assembly with Blinken, she mentioned, including that there was an understanding “that there will probably be robust actions within the nearest future.”

Tikhanovskaya is a former trainer whose husband was jailed by the Lukashenko regime. She’s been dwelling in exile in Lithuania after she opposed Lukashenko of their fraudulent 2020 presidential election.

The US and worldwide group have taken a sequence of actions in opposition to the Lukashenko authorities within the wake of final August’s election, wherein “Europe’s final dictator” refused to step down and initiated a violent and ongoing marketing campaign of crackdowns on protesters, dissidents and journalists in Belarus.

In June, the US, European Union, United Kingdom and Canada imposed sanctions on Belarus in a coordinated response to the Lukashenko authorities’s compelled touchdown of a Ryanair flight and arrest of an opposition journalist final month in addition to the “persevering with repression” within the former Soviet state.

CNN’s Jennifer Hansler, DJ Judd and Radina Gigova contributed to this report.

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