Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday there was no need for outside mediation over the unrest in Belarus and accused foreign powers of using the crisis to interfere in Belarus.

Lavrov said statements by European Union countries were driven by the geopolitics and that he hoped the Belarusian opposition would be ready to enter into talks with the authorities in Belarus.

“We are concerned about the attempt to use the internal difficulties that are facing Belarus, the Belarusian people and the country’s leadership, to interfere in these affairs and processes from outside. Not just to interfere but to impose on Belarusians those rules that foreign players consider beneficial for themselves. No one hides the fact that it is about geopolitics, about the fight for the post-Soviet space. We have seen this fight earlier after the Soviet Union ceased to exist. The last example, of course, is Ukraine. What we are hearing now from European capitals, especially from the Baltic states (Lithuania, Estonia), as well as from Poland, the European Parliament is not about Lukashenko, human rights and democracy. It is all about geopolitics, about the very rules that our Western partners want to impose into everyday life on our continent and other parts of the world”, - said Lavrov

He advised everyone to refrain from using this difficult situation in Belarus to undermine the normal, mutually respectful dialogue between the authorities and society, to make it provocative.

“I urge all those who say that this mediation is the only way out of the current situation, not to forget how our Western colleagues mediated during the Maidan in Kiev in 2014. Then, respected representatives of the European Union reached agreements, and we all remember what happened next. I am convinced that the Belarusian people, with their wisdom, are able to sort out the current situation themselves. I do not see any lack of readiness for a dialogue on the part of the authorities. I hope that the same readiness will be shown by those who are dissatisfied with the election results for one reason or another”, - added Russian Minister.