Andrei Popov Quotations

We have repeatedly stated to our European partners that restrictive policy toward Belarus is groundless, far- fetched and useless. Real understanding and constructive cooperation are obviously reached through dialogue, but not imposed with sanctions.

The people of Belarus have made their choice and it's absolutely irrelevant here whether the United States likes this choice or not.

Short-sighted actions of this sort are clearly ineffective and serve only to complicate problems in our relations rather than trying to solve them.

I don't think we will comment on this exclusively to journalists. Maybe we will react in some other way, but for now there is no reaction.

We told our European partners that their policy towards Belarus is groundless and useless.

It is Belarus' aspiration to hold free and fair elections complying with the law and international obligations of our country, so our desires here coincide with Ukraine's.

Our position as regards the restrictions imposed by the European Union remains unchanged -- these sanctions are unsubstantiated, deliberate and useless.

Such short-sighted actions are ineffective. They aggravate mutual relations, not help improve them.

The American side deliberately distorts facts related to a visit to Minsk by U.S. and EU representatives. We proceed from the assumption that Belarus and the United States have relations of their own, determined by a whole set of different factors. That's why we suggested separate visits. We hope our American and European partners will demonstrate in deed and not in word their constructive attitude towards cooperation with Belarus.

If the United States and European Union countries respect the people of Belarus, they should respect their choice. The Republic of Belarus retains the right to take retaliatory measures.

The European Parliament is making laughable calls on deeming the elections illegitimate.

The elections in Belarus do not require external recognition or non-recognition. In this situation, the attempt to hand down a verdict is unfounded.

The goal of these so-called 'observers' is to provoke conflict situations during the election campaign and destabilize the situation in the country.

The Foreign ministry does not comment on visits by individuals. We assume that there is even less point in such meetings after the polls than there was ahead of the election.