The United States will bow to Belarus' call to cut its embassy staff in Minsk, acting head of mission Jonathan Moore said in a statement Monday. "The number of diplomatic employees in Belarus will be reduced to seventeen people by the end of the day on March 27," Moore said.
"The step is in keeping with the demands of the foreign ministry." The embassy currently has 38 employees, a diplomatic source said. Earlier this month, the Belarussian foreign ministry asked ambassador Karen Stewart to leave Minsk and ordered its own ambassador to Washington to return home in protest at US sanctions on Belarussian oil monopoly Belneftekhim.
Belarus said the sanctions were a "crude violation" of international law. Monday's announcement came a day after Belarussian television aired a report that accused an embassy official of spying in a row that echoes the diplomatic tussles of the Cold War era. The programme said the official had recruited ten Belarussians.
The United States has imposed sanctions on the foreign assets of Belneftekhim in order to put pressure on President Alexander Lukashenko's regime to allow democratic freedoms and release political prisoners. The embassy again called on Belarus to free its political prisoners in its statement Monday. "The freeing of all political prisoners will provide the chance to start a new search for a way to improve our bilateral relations," Moore said.
Washington has urged Belarus to release Alexander Kozulin, a runner-up in the presidential election in 2006 who was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for leading a protest after the vote. Kozulin was briefly released last month to attend the funeral of his wife, Irina Kozulina. Speaking to reporters in Minsk, he accused Lukashenko of building a "totalitarian state."
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