Prominent opposition member leaves Coordination Council

February 25, BPN. Belarusian opposition politician Pavieł Łatuška says he is leaving the Coordination Council, a loose union of Alaksandr Łukašenka’s critics.

“This is not about me personally. It is due to an approach that may eventually lead to a change in the Belarusian democratic forces’ strategy,” Łatuška told Euroradio. “Everything that is happening now, in my opinion, can lead to a resumption of the crisis [in the democratic forces] and its transition to a higher level.”

According to him, the Coordination Council plans to adopt a procedure soon, and it can become a problem.

“I think it’s important to fight to reach our goal. Now we have two enemies: the occupier – the Russian Federation, which has occupied Belarus – and Łukašenka’s totalitarian regime. If we move into a situation where we really focus on our internal political disputes, on the internal political tug-of-war – and the proposed procedure creates these prerequisites – we will actually lose resources and only pretend to be fighters,” he said.

Łatuška criticized what he described as a ban on Coordination Council members’ service in other opposition institutions, as well as the Council’s supposed transformation into an unelected “proto-parliament” that wants to represent Belarus in the international arena. In addition, the politician spoke out against the Council’s perceived intention to move from pressure on Łukašenka’s regime to negotiations.

The renewed Coordination Council held its first meeting on January 26. It is a successor to the Coordinating Council for Political Crisis Settlement established in August 2020. The Belarusian government has designated it an extremist group and opened criminal cases against its leaders.

Now it reportedly consists of 15 original members, 73 new delegates from public organizations and 15 independent deputies.