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Putin urges dialogue between Lukashenko and opposition

AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for dialogue between his Belarus ally Alexander Lukashenko and the country’s opposition, exiled since Minsk suppressed mass anti-government protests last year. 

Putin has continued to back Lukashenko, increasingly isolated since crushing unprecedented demonstrations against his rule after he claimed to win an election last summer that the West says was rigged. 

Lukashenko’s regime imprisoned hundreds, forcing most of the opposition — which believes it won the election — to flee.

In an address to Russia’s foreign ministry, Putin said Belarus’s internal situation has “calmed down”. 

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“Nonetheless, there are problems. We are all well aware of this and of course call for a dialogue between the authorities and the opposition,” said the Russian leader, who regularly hosts Lukashenko. 

The Kremlin chief is known for not tolerating street protests and raising suspicions they are instigated by the West, while the Belarusian opposition has been actively courting Western leaders. 

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who the opposition believe was the real winner of last summer’s presidential election and has since fled to neighbouring Lithuania, said she had no contact with Moscow but welcomed the call.  

“Personally, I did not have contact with the Kremlin. But I welcome calls for dialogue,” she told the Belarusian-run news outlet Zerkalo.io. 

She added, however, that he her conditions for talking to the regime remain the release of political prisoners. 

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“No dialogue can start in prison. All political prisoners should be freed and violence stopped. Our conditions are the same,” she said.

There are 873 political prisoners in Belarus, according to rights group Viasna. 

Putin, Lukashenko’s main political and financial backer, has been calling for dialogue between Minsk and Brussels in a migrant crisis on the Polish border. 

The EU accuses Lukashenko of luring thousands of migrants — mostly from the Middle-East — to the Polish border as revenge for Western sanctions on his regime. 

The Kremlin this week welcomed “direct contact” between Minsk and Brussels, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Lukashenko. 

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It was the Belarus strongman’s first phone call with a Western leader since he dispersed the protests. 

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994. 

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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