What I hear is that the rationale behind it was that the geopolitical situation is changing and probably Belarus is not as supportive of Putin's regime as before, especially regarding the war in Ukraine, but this is presumptuous. Unfortunately, I must say, I was very critical of this decision. Why? Because Brussels demonstrated weakness at that time, because they set their own conditions. There were three conditions put forward for lifting sanctions or for softening sanctions. Only one was partly met, which was the release of political prisoners, and also only partly because the condition was the release and rehabilitation of political prisoners. None of us is rehabilitated to this time.
In this way the European Union demonstrated its weakness and that gave a false impression to the regime inside Belarus. Again, Russia was watching very closely. Even after the very strong reactions to the crackdown and atrocities in Minsk in 2010 and the following statements and strengthening of sanctions, this period was very short. They started to lift sanctions last year, when the dictator and those who were guilty of those crimes were actually acquitted by the international community. That's what I'm talking about.
We don't have an independent judiciary. That's why it's so important to have a moral condemnation of what's going on in such regimes as Belarus. It was an unfortunate decision that led us nowhere, because the system is trying to be nice to the west, not because they want to change but because they badly need money. That's the whole purpose of their rhetoric today.
Unfortunately, I must say that Canada also followed this example by lifting those restrictions that were in place in May this year. Again, I want to stress it sends the wrong signal, not only to us in Belarus who work as the freedom fighters, the human rights defenders, civil society, but also to the regime in the Kremlin. If the lesser regime, so less evil, as they call them, could escape the sanctions that's the pattern to follow in Russia. They can continue their politics, especially in Ukraine, and know for sure that there will be a period of fatigue in the west of its policy of sanctioning or strengthening these sanctions, and Russia will escape responsibility for its acts.