/nginx/o/2021/04/19/13735374t1hf60c.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "EU prepares new sanctions on Belarus – Society and politics – News")
“The regime continues to repress and intimidate its citizens. It is now targeting the Polish community,” Borrell said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers. “We are preparing the next package of sanctions, which I hope will be approved in the coming weeks.”
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The EU has already sanctioned President Alexander Lukashenko and 87 officials, as well as regime-affiliated businessmen. These people have been denied entry to the EU and their assets have been frozen.
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In the last round, announced in December, seven companies that fund the authoritarian regime were also subject to sanctions.
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Belarus was taken over by mass protests in the aftermath of the August 9 presidential election, in which long-serving President Lukashenko was once again the winner, with hundreds of thousands of people outraged to falsify the results.
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The protests were brutally suppressed by the authorities and gradually subsided by the winter.
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Tens of thousands of people were detained during the protests. Hundreds of protesters were injured, but several were also killed.
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Lukashenko’s rival Svyatlan Cihanouska, who the opposition believes is the real winner of the election, was forced to leave the country. Most of the other opposition leaders are also in prison or exile.
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