Russian siloviki feel themselves at home in Belarus, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin believes.
As reported earlier, the first-ever Forum of Regions of Belarus and Ukraine has kicked off today.
In an interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, the minister warned his compatriots against visiting Belarus.
“Ukrainian citizens’ stay in Belarus is potentially dangerous, and we are going to discuss the issue with Minsk. We are well aware of the Russian power structures’ acting in the territory of Belarus, Russia is also present there in the field of security. But there are no major problems in our bilateral political and economic relations,” Klimkin said.
In late August, Pavlo Gryb, a citizen of Ukraine, went missing in the Belarusian city of Homiel. He was allegedly kidnapped by the FSB. As it emerged later, Russia blacklisted him as a ‘terrorist’ for his criticizing the Kremlin’s policy on the Internet. In Homiel he met with the 17-year-old girl from Sochi who later confessed that the FSB exerted pressure on her. Later, Pavlo Hryb was ‘found’ arrested in Russia’s Krasnodar.
belsat.eu, photo by Gleb Garanich/ Forum
