The European Union stopped short of calling for fresh elections in Belarus as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she tried and failed to get hold of President Alexander Lukashenko by phone.
Despite many of the EU's 27 leaders backing a new vote during a private conference call on Wednesday, the bloc managed only to call for "dialog" between the two sides in the disputed election, and for a peaceful transition of power.
Shortly before the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that other countries refrain from meddling in Belarus's domestic affairs and EU officials acknowledged they were wary of accusations of interference.
"The elections were neither free nor fair and we cannot therefore recognize the results of these elections," Merkel told reporters after the talks. "President Lukashenko has denied every phone call, which I regret. You can only mediate when you're in contact with all sides."
Protesters have taken to the streets in Belarus, a former Soviet republic, since Lukashenko, authoritarian president for 26 years, claimed a landslide victory in the disputed poll 10 days ago. Riot police violently cracked down on demonstrators and opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has called for a second vote, fled to Lithuania, an EU member state.
The situation poses a problem for the EU, which has three countries bordering Belarus and often struggles to show unity on foreign policy issues. The bloc wanted to make clear its disapproval without being seen to be forcing the nation to choose between Europe and Russia.
EU officials with knowledge of the call said that the bloc was wary of being seen as an interfering foreign power and acknowledged that the Kremlin would have to play a role in any transition of power, something that leaders underlined during the call.
Last week, the bloc took the first step in imposing sanctions on officials linked to the election and to the subsequent crackdown on protesters. Leaders reinforced their commitment to introducing restrictive measures as soon as possible.
Some governments did call for fresh elections. Earlier in the day, the leaders of four eastern EU countries known as the Visegrad group _ Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia _ said in a joint statement they supported a new poll. The three Baltic states and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz joined them.
There should be a new election "in a few months," Kurz said. He added that "Russia should be part of those efforts."
In a news conference after the call, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen evoked the possibility of fresh elections in Belarus without going so far as to demand them.
"The people of Belarus want change and they want it now," von der Leyen told reporters. "They want freedom of speech and assembly and they want democracy and new presidential elections as these elections were neither fair nor free."
In a video released on Wednesday morning from Lithuania, Tikhanovskaya called on EU leaders not to recognize the "fraudulent" elections. "Honorable leaders of Europe, I call on you to support the awakening of Belarus," she said.
