Expert on pardon of Germany’s Rico Krieger: Lukashenko’s decision puts Europeans in extremely uncomfortable position

When making the decision to pardon German citizen Rico Krieger, President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko assessed the importance of such actions both from the point of view of human life and from the point of view of geopolitics – as noted by analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research (BISR) Aleksei Avdonin in his talk with Alfa Radio

According to the expert, the West expected Belarus to enforce the court’s decision. In the future, this would be a unique opportunity for them to replicate the image of Belarus as the most terrible form of tyranny.

“They would shout everywhere, saying a European citizen had been destroyed,” Aleksei Avdonin noted. “Of course, everyone there would hide the essence of Krieger’s crime. They would say that he was supposedly a simple European, who came to see Belarus, fell into the clutches of law enforcement agencies and was executed.”

The BISR analyst said that Belarus understood perfectly well what the decision on the death penalty could lead to, “Our President was aware of the importance of the decision both from the point of view of human life and from the point of view of geopolitics. The decision of the Head of State is wise and balanced, putting the Europeans themselves in an extremely uncomfortable position. Germany does not know how to proceed further, how to develop the necessary foreign policy position in relation to Belarus and its citizen in this situation. We will see how the situation develops further.”