VZCZCXRO2119
RR RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHHE #0151 0941127
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 031127Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY HELSINKI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4210
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000151 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2015 
TAGS: BO EU PHUM PREL FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND ON BELARUS 
 
REF: STATE 30007 
 
Classified By: PolChief Greg Thome for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) PolChief delivered subject demarche to Tuula 
Yrjola, Director of the Office for Eastern Europe and 
Central Asia April 1.  The GoF has made strengthening 
democracy and urging reform in Belarus the rest of 
this region a focus of its OSCE Chairmanship-in- 
Office, so Yrjola appreciated the detailed background 
on developments in Minsk.  The recent turn of events 
has been very discouraging for the EU, for many OSCE 
Member States (MS), and for the GoF.  Finland had been 
actively supporting efforts to improve the EU-Belarus 
dialogue, and up until about the turn of the year 
there was a sense that real progress was being made, 
Yrjola said.  The EU and the GOF were particularly 
encouraged by the release of several political 
prisoners and the agreement regarding the opening of 
an EU Commission office in Minsk -- a step that is 
especially crucial to EU MS like Finland that do not 
have Embassies on the ground.  EU and GoF leaders 
remained guarded in their optimism, but there was a 
growing sense that the "reaching out" the EU had done 
was being reciprocated, at least via small steps. 
 
¶2. (C) For these reasons, the GoF is particularly 
frustrated about many recent developments; the violent 
May 26 crackdown on demonstrators and the unwarranted 
diplomatic pressure against the US Embassy represent a 
turn in the wrong direction and are likely to 
undermine the small bits of progress and confidence 
building that had occurred in previous months, Yrjola 
said.  She fully shared the US view that a unified 
trans-Atlantic approach on Belarus is crucial, and 
very close coordination will only become more vital as 
Belarus moves toward Parliamentary elections in the 
fall.  While the GoF in no way condones the Lukashenka 
regime's egregious overreaction to the US Treasury 
Department action in November to freeze the assets of 
Belneftekhim, Yrjola did suggest that closer US-EU 
coordination on that issue might have helped the EU 
better prepare for Lukashenka's latest round of 
stunts. 
HYATT