Radio Racyja Director Denied Tourist Visa to Belarus Again
According to www.racyja.com, Yury Liashchynski, program director of Radio Racyja, had applied for a tourist visa to Belarus, but got a "visa denied" stamp without any explanations in the conulate in Bialystok on August 14 .
Yury Liashchynski, photo by racyja.com
A similar situation occurred last year. "I have two stamps cancelling visa in my old passport - during presidential elections in 2006 and earlier. I don't know why they don't want to give me a tourist visa for my private business - I want to visit friends in Minsk and Hrodna," said Yury Liashchynski.
Mr Liashcynski estimated that in 2013 Belarusian authorities denied visas to four employees of Belarusian Radio Racyja. The chair of the Board of the radio Yauhen Wapa has been unable to travel to Belarus for four years.
"The fact that it is spoken in Belarus of cooperation with our countrymen abroad, of warming up relations between Poland and Belarus - all this is done in words only. In practice, there is no improvement, there are "better" Belarusians and there are "worse" Belarusians abroad whom authorities in Minsk don't like," says the journalist.