Putin Grants Belarusians Living in Russia Right to Vote

Russia ratified a protocol on July 23 that gives Belarusians permanently living in Russia the right to vote, according to Russian state-owned media outlet Arguments and Facts.

The protocol was signed in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in March, was approved by the Russian parliament on July 15, and became law on July 23.

Citizens of Belarus living permanently in Russia will also be given the right to run for positions in local government.

Under Belarusian law, people living permanently in Belarus already had the right to vote and run for government positions.

The protocol amends an agreement on the equal rights of citizens reached between Moscow and Minsk in 1998.

Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said the initiative is also intended to strengthen integration and cooperation between the two countries under the framework of the 1999 Union State treaty. That treaty was an agreement to deepen political, military, and economic ties between the two countries.

Volodin said the step was necessary to fully develop the potential of the Union State treaty while ensuring the interests of citizens are protected.

Along with the bilateral Union State treaty, Belarus is a longstanding member of several Moscow-led regional groupings. These include the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Lukashenko is considered to be one of Putin’s closest allies, and the two nations have only increased their cooperation since Moscow’s forces rolled into Ukraine in 2022.

The Belarusian leader, who has been in power since 1994, was reelected to a seventh term in office after winning a Jan. 26 election.

Russia and Belarus regularly conduct joint military drills. Moscow has, so far, not asked Minsk to send troops to the war in Ukraine. Lukashenko has said that he will only send Belarusian troops into Ukraine if his country is attacked.

“I’m prepared to fight alongside the Russians from the territory of Belarus in one case only: if at least one soldier from there comes to Belarus to kill my people,” Lukashenko told reporters in February 2023.

Minsk has been accused by Poland of coordinating with Moscow to facilitate illegal migration into Poland from the east.

Belarus has also been subjected to sanctions by the European Union, the United States, the UK, and Canada over its support for Russia during the war in Ukraine, allegedly fraudulent elections, and alleged human rights abuses.

On July 22, Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxim Ryzhenkov criticized the EU for isolating itself from the Eurasian and African markets and creating a “quasi-ghetto.”

“The European Union is building a wall not just to separate from Belarus and Russia. In their minds, they’re trying to separate from some sort of hordes of illegal migrants,” Ryzhenkov told Belarusian state TV channel First Information, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

“They’re not isolating us from themselves, but rather isolating themselves from the vast market of Eurasia and the adjacent Africa. They’re closing themselves off from all of us. Who benefits from this? Certainly not them.”

Adam Morrow contributed to this report.