EU agrees to new sanctions to “tighten the thumbscrew against Belarus”

EU countries have agreed to impose extensive new sanctions on economic sectors and government officials Belarus With President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime increasing pressure on well-known dissidents.

On Monday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the European Group took action against 86 other individuals and organizations and set his sights on industries such as finance, potash and petroleum products. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada also coordinated with Brussels to announce additional sanctions on Belarusian officials and entities in an attempt to force the regime to “end its repressive practices against its own people.”

The planned EU economic sanctions are still awaiting finalization and law signing, marking another step towards the goal of Lukashenko’s 27-year dictatorship. They are in response to Minsk’s interception of Ryanair’s flight to arrest blogger Roman Protasevich last month as part of the suppression of the opposition since last year’s presidential election. Protasevich’s student girlfriend Sofia Sapega was also detained.

The Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told reporters before the Luxembourg meeting: “After this cruel act of national air pirates, we must tighten the thumbscrew, and the ministers agree to sanctions.” “We want to crack down. In the state-owned economy, those responsible, not the people of Belarus, are suffering anyway.”

The European Union imposed an asset freeze and travel ban on 8 entities and 78 individuals in Belarus, including the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Transportation. The EU has already implemented similar measures against dozens of officials, including Lukashenko.

These economic measures are aimed at hitting some of the major export sectors of this Eastern European country. The EU wants to stifle the Lukashenko regime’s funding, including through state-owned companies that dominate the Belarusian economy.

Joseph Borel, the head of EU foreign policy, said that sanctions would “seriously harm the Belarusian economy.” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated that the target area “has a particularly important significance for the income of Belarus and the regime.”

According to EU data, Belarus exported about 4 billion euros of goods to the EU last year. The EU is its second largest trading partner after Russia, with imports amounting to slightly more than 6 billion euros. Its petrochemical products and potash fertilizer exports are an important source of hard currency for the Lukashenko regime, bringing in at least $6.6 billion in revenue in 2020.

The diplomat stated that financial sanctions would restrict the country’s national institutions from accessing the EU’s capital markets and the European Investment Bank of the EU to provide loans to official Belarusian companies. Exemptions were proposed for private bank deposits, humanitarian transactions and some local projects.

The official added that the proposed package of EU restrictions also covers the tobacco industry. It will ban the export of surveillance technology to Belarus and further expand the existing arms embargo, including stopping the delivery of precision rifles used by biathletes.

EU diplomats insist that the package is designed to minimize damage to the regime and minimize damage to the population. But many European officials privately admit that the consequences will be clear only when the sanctions are implemented.

The EU package is in line with the sanctions sought by the opposition movement in Belarus.The ministers held a breakfast meeting on Monday Svyatlana Zihanusskaya, Challenged Lukashenko’s main opposition candidate in last year’s election.

Qihanusskaya showed the ministers a bullet. She said she had taken it from the lungs of a young man who was shot in the protests in August last year, and thanked them for their “consistent position on the situation in Belarus. “.

Minsk still does not repent under pressure from the European Union. Last week, when officials dragged Protasevich from the Belarusian KGB prison to a press conference, the blogger was apparently coerced and spoke of his “unconditional” respect for Lukashenko.

On Monday, the Supreme Court of Belarus heard oral arguments on the trial of Viktor Babariko, a banker with ties to Russia, who was arrested on corruption charges after declaring his candidacy for Lukashenko last year.

Another high-profile opponent, Siarhei Tsikhanosky, Qihanusskaya’s husband, will face a private hearing later this week with several other dissidents (including the famous blogger Ihar Losik).

Zihanusskaya said she suspects that the regime has decided to hold hearings behind closed doors to prevent her husband and other participants from calling Belarusians against Lukashenko.

“[The regime] I don’t want people to see that these people are not broken, that they are as strong as them, and I don’t want them to inspire people,” she told the Financial Times last week.