Daily US Times: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is facing mountain pressure for election rigging accusations, has held an unexpected meeting with political opponents in the jail where they are currently detained.
The President called the meeting to discuss constitutional reform with the opponents he had jailed, according to reports of state media.
Opposition figures said the meeting was a sign of weakness on the President’s part.
In the August election, Mr Lukashenko claimed a landslide win, but it is widely seen as fraudulent, sparking mass protests.
A violent crackdown on unrest in the days following the disputed election results saw thousands of people detained, and hundreds beaten by police.
The US and the EU have refused to recognise Mr Lukashenko’s new term.
Lukashenko’s press office said participants had agreed to keep the four-and-a-half-hour conversation “secret.”
However, a photo published by the press service shows Mr Lukashenko sitting at a table with 11 political figures, all of them look pale and unsmiling.
Viktor Babaryko is one of them who attended the meeting with Lukashenko. He is a banker and was initially seen as Mr Lukashenko’s strongest rival in the election, but was barred from running and jailed in July.
Liliya Vlasova, a member of the opposition’s Coordination Council and a lawyer, is also in the photo, as is Vitali Shkliarov, a Belarusian-American strategist who worked on US Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
A short video clip shared by the President’s press service also shows Mr Lukashenko saying to the group: “I am trying to convince not only your supporters but the whole of society that we need to look at thinks more broadly.”
Apparently referring to the ongoing protests, Mr Lukashenko added: “You can’t rewrite the constitution on the streets.”
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