MOSCOW, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is disappointed with the response by the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers to the recommendation from the council's statutory body that Belarus should hold fresh presidential elections, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
Andres Herkel, rapporteur on Belarus and Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) Belarus subcommittee, said on April 13 that elections in the former Soviet republic should be held again, since the previous ballot, which ended with a landslide win for incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, was problematic and opaque for observers.
The Russian ministry said the committee's response had given a "distorted, non-objective evaluation of the recent parliamentary elections in Belarus."
"The demonstrative refusal for even-sided dialogue with the legitimately elected leadership of Belarus is absolutely inconsistent with the norms of civilized intergovernmental communication," the ministry said.
"Unfortunately, we reiterate that the arguments we have continued to present to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers have not been heard. It is particularly alarming that the decision on April 26 by the Council of Ministers broke the culture of consensus, ignoring the opinion of the side in disagreement with the majority," the statement said.
Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington, was re-elected for a third presidential term on March 19 with 83% of the vote. Lukashenko recently topped a blacklist drawn up by the European Union and was banned from entering the Union.
PACE said that, in addition to limited rights for observers at the elections, the opposition did not have the same opportunities as the ruling political group in Belarus.
The Belarusian opposition denounced the elections as fraudulent, and staged a sit-in protest on central Oktyabrskaya Square in the capital, Minsk. The rally was broken up after a few days, as was a demonstration March 25 that saw hundreds arrested and, the opposition alleges, left at least one protestor dead.
