Belarusian authorities aspire to normalize relations with US and EU

Last week, the EU lifted sanctions against 24 Belarusian officials. Meanwhile, the Belarusian authorities have not made any public moves in order to fulfil the requirements on which these sanctions have been based. On August 2^nd through August 4^th, a US Congress delegation visited Belarus. During the visit, they met with Lukashenka and both sides expressed mutual hope for normalisation of bilateral relations. Amid the lack of progress with the human rights situation in Belarus, the Belarusian authorities regard moves by the West as additional evidence that in order to normalise relations they simply should refrain from new repressions.