lukashenko's barbaric behavior and that of his k.g.b. henchmen -- and that's right, belarus still has something called a k.g.b. -- earned him sweeping condemnation from europe and the united states, isolating his nation and hurting his own people. this photograph sadly today, a year and a half after this outrage, lukashenko is still holding this man, this presidential candidate, mikalai statkevich, who was sentenced to six years in medium security prison for having the nerve to run against lukashenko. at least six and as many as 13 other protesters from the election still sit in jail. this is outrageous in europe today or anywhere on the planet, for that matter. it is time for president lukashenko to let this man and these people go. next, mr. president, i turn to vietnam. although our bilateral relationship tons improve with vietnam, we -- continues to improve with vietnam, we cannot ignore the troubling disregard for freedom of speech in that country. it's illustrated by the unfounded detention of a popular blogger, nyugen vonkei, know

that firsthand when the day after his election, lukashenko jailed all of his political opponents. talk about discouraging people running for office. as long as no criminal activity occurred in a democracy, voters should stkaoeut at -- decide ate ballot box if they did or didn't like decisions of the elected discussion. i had a heart wrenching discussion with a the daughter and others on issues of shared ukraine yen cooperation as well as the detention. they assured me they're going to move on a timely basis to deal with this detention and i assured them the west was watching closely. i hope she will be released from her detention as quickly as possible. my second stop was in turkey. i've been there several times before. it's a growing power in the region of the world, a thriving muslim democracy and a strong nato partner of the united states. turkey agreed to build an important nato radar base on its soil, an installation that is absolutely critical in keeping an eye on iran and its nuclear ambitions. this was a hard decision by turkey to agree to this installation for nato and th