The Council of the EU adopted, on Thursday 17 December, sanctions against seven entities and 29 individuals found responsible for the continued violent repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists, among others, or who benefit from and/or support the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
Among the 29 newly sanctioned personalities, in addition to the 59 already sanctioned, are the Speaker of the upper chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly, Natallia Kashanava, the Minister and First Deputy Minister of Information, Ihar Lutsky and Pavel Liohki, and the Deputy Prime Minister and former Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee, Anatol Sivak.
Prosecutor General Andrei Shved, Chief of Staff Ihar Burmistrau, high-ranking police officers, judges and senior officials are also involved, as are the president of the state television and radio company, “responsible for the dissemination of state propaganda”, and two businessmen, supporters of Alexander Lukashenko. They are now banned from travelling to the EU and their assets are frozen.
Of the seven entities whose assets are frozen, three are military-related: CJSC Beltechexport, which exports arms and military equipment produced by Belarusian state enterprises, and AGAT Electromechanical Plant OJSC and OJSC 140 Repair Plant, which are part of the State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus. LLC Synesis, which provides the authorities with a monitoring platform, is also subject to restrictive measures. The same applies to two real estate companies, Dana Holdings/Dana Astra, one of the country’s leading developers and builders, whose owners have close links with Mr Lukashenko, and the state-owned company GHU, the main operator on the non-residential real estate market in Belarus, whose director was responsible for overseeing the security of the 2020 presidential election.
See EU Council Decision: https://bit.ly/3r8Dois (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)