You're reading: Minsk official: Yanukovych supporters have not requested political asylum in Belarus

Minsk - Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has confirmed that supporters of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who have fled Ukraine are not staying in the territory of Belarus.

“As far as I know, there are no Yanukovych supporters in our country,” Makei was quoted as saying by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s press service following a meeting with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.

When commenting on the possibility of granting political asylum in Belarus to Yanukovych’s supporters, Makei said that “no one was applied for political asylum in our country.”

“If we were certain that these people are being persecuted illegally or only for their political views, as, for example, it is being done today in relation to the Communist Party of Ukraine, when the headquarters or the house of the Communist Party leader was raided, or in relation to other political forces, if we were certain that this persecution has only formal grounds resulting from people having absolutely different political views, we could grant political asylum to such individuals,” Makei said.