BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
17/03/2008
Belarus Says Discussing Its Image With UK PR Expert
MINSK, Belarus (AFP)--Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has met with U.K. public relations guru Tim Bell in a bid revamp the ex-Soviet state's pariah image, the Belarus government said Monday.
Bell, a member of the U.K. parliament's House of Lords and head of Bell Pottinger group, "is interested in the possibility of working here. He has collected a lot of information," said presidential spokesman Pavel Lyogky.
"He said ours was a calm country with potential, very different from our image in the West," Lyogky told AFP, confirming a meeting between Bell and Lukashenko took place last week.
The task of improving Belarus' poor image in the West could prove a tough assignment for Bell, who served as a consultant to former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher. The U.S. considers Belarus to be "Europe's last dictatorship."
Lukashenko has scandalized the West by among other things professing a soft spot for the Nazi German leader Adolf Hitler and by the shooting down of a hot air balloon that strayed into Belarussian airspace in 1995, killing two U.S. pilots.
The east European country's human rights record has routinely been lambasted by both the U.S. and by human rights activists.
"Of course the president is keen to improve his image. It would be stupid to deny it," Lyogky said. "There shouldn't always be a single, biased image of Belarus."
Lyogky couldn't say whether Bell had been offered any actual contracts by Lukashenko. Contacted by AFP in London, a spokeswoman for Bell couldn't immediately comment on the state of negotiations.
The talks come amid a diplomatic dispute between Belarus and the U.S. The U.S. ambassador to Minsk quit the country last week after being asked to leave by Belarussian authorities.
Washington has imposed diplomatic and economic sanctions on Belarus and has called on the government to release Alexander Kozulin, a runner-up against Lukashenko in a 2006 election who was imprisoned for leading a protest after the vote.
Source:
Archive
