Credit: nato.usmission.gov /  President  Trump nominated Julie D. Fisher, of Tennessee, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Belarus.

By Gary Raynaldo       DIPLOMATIC TIMES

President Donald Trump in April nominated Julie Fisher to serve as the first Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Belarus in more than a decade. Now, the nomination is threatened to be derailed by the violent political crackdown in Belarus amid this month’s controversial re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko. At least 7,000 people have been arrested with reports of beatings, torture, and at least two people killed.  U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called on the White House to withdraw its nominee to be the U.S.  ambassador to Belarus and accused Lukashenko of trying to steal the election in the former Soviet republic.  

“Authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko is trying to steal the election in Belarus. After shutting down the internet and sending riot police to confront peaceful protestors, Lukashenko’s government threated the opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya into making a hostage video accepting his victory in the elections. While I support greater ties between the United States and the Belarusian people, now is not the time to be elevating the diplomatic relationship with Lukashenko’s government. Sending an Ambassador to Minsk now, for the first time in over a decade, would signal that the United States condones these actions, and I am prepared to oppose the nomination in the Foreign Relations Committee unless it is withdrawn by the President.”

-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (Foreign Relations Committee) 

Credit: Wikipedia / U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Longtime President Lukashenko won 80.23% of the vote, with rival challenger  Sviatlana  Tikhanovskaya receiving 9.9%. Critics  immediately denounced Lukashenko’s landslide victory as being rigged and mass protests erupted with thousands taking to the streets of capital city Minsk and across the country to vent frustration.   Tikhanovskaya fled Belarus and is in Lithuania after she asserted that the re-election of incumbent President  Lukashenko  was fraudulent. 

“I stand with the brave people of Belarus who are demanding freedom from the tyranny, corruption and cronyism that has held back the country for too long.”

–U.S. Senator Chris Murphy

Fisher, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Counselor, currently serves as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Europe and the European Union in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.  She also served on special assignment as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Russia. Previously,  Fisher was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Mission to NATO; the Chief of Staff to the State Department’s Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources; and the Director of the State Department Operations Center.

Testimony of Julie Fisher Nominee to be Ambassador to Belarus Senate Foreign Relations Committee August 5, 2020:

“If confirmed, I look forward to working with this Committee and Congress to re-establish and strengthen the bilateral relationship at a critical time and to support Belarus’s efforts to protect its sovereignty and independence in the face of
unprecedented political pressure aimed at undermining both. If confirmed, I look forward to building on the work of our outstanding team in Minsk to further reforms and promote a more ambitious bilateral relationship. I will bring to this position twenty-five years of experience at the State Department including service at our Embassies in Kyiv, Moscow, Tbilisi, and at NATO, as well as tours at the National Security Council and at State Department headquarters. I most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, focused on the relationships with our closest Allies and partners in Western Europe and in the European Union. Following the withdrawal of our ambassador in 2008, the bilateral relationship with Belarus languished for the better part of a decade. But after Russia’s illegal seizure and  occupation of Crimea and its manufactured war in Ukraine’s Donbas region, we began to see signs of interest from the Belarusian side for increased diplomatic and commercial ties.”