The European Union has imposed sanctions on 40 Belarusian politicians and officials

The European Union announced Friday of having imposed targeted sanctions on 40 Belarusian politicians and officials considered close to dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who was not included in the list of those sanctioned. The sanctions were approved for the manipulation of the result of the presidential elections held last August, and for the subsequent repression carried out by the regime against the opponents of Lukashenko, accused of having “stolen” the vote in order to remain in power. Soon after also the United States they announced targeted sanctions against eight Belarusian officials. Belarus said it would impose sanctions on the European Union in retaliation, but no other details have been released at the moment.

The European sanctions, which have already entered into force, are directed among others against the Belarusian Interior Minister, Yuri Karaev, and the commander of the rapid response forces, Alexander Valerievich Bykov, whom the Union has accused of having made arrests arbitrary and torture of peaceful anti-government protesters. The president of the Belarusian Electoral Commission, Lidia Mikhailovna Yermoshina, was also sanctioned, accused of intimidating voters and manipulating the electoral result. The sanctions include, among other things, a ban on travel to the European Union and the freezing of bank accounts.

Alexander Lukashenko is not among those sanctioned, considered the main culprit of violence and repression against demonstrators. Lukashenko’s exclusion may have been desired by the European Union to keep open the possibility of an agreement between the Belarusian dictator and the opposition on possible new elections.

The European Union had been discussing sanctions on Belarus for weeks, but the final decision had been postponed due to the opposition of Cyprus. The Cypriot government, in fact, had said that it would not support the sanctions against Belarus unless the European Union had also approved sanctions against Turkey, which for some time has been carrying out a very aggressive policy in the eastern Mediterranean, and with which Cyprus has been on bad terms for decades. The vote of Cyprus was fundamental, because the sanctions require unanimity in the Council of the European Union, the body in which the representatives of the 27 governments of the member countries sit. It is not clear why Cyprus changed its mind.

– Read also: What do Cyprus and Belarus have to do with it?

In addition to the sanctions announced against the European Union, Belarus has adopted various measures in response to European sanctions. He said he wanted to cancel all accreditation of foreign journalists in the country – who will now have to re-apply – and that he had summoned his ambassadors to Poland and Lithuania; he also asked these two countries to reduce the size of their diplomatic missions in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

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