EU extended sanctions against “Lukashenko's wallets“

The Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union has expanded the list of Belarusian officials and companies that fall under the sanctions.

This was reported by a correspondent of Radio Liberty in Brussels.

Sanctions expanded at the expense of 29 companies and 12 individuals - judges, prosecutors, business leaders, who, according to the EU, responsible for human rights abuses and repressions against the opposition and civil society, as well as support or are beneficiaries of the power of Alexander Lukashenko.

Additions to the list are not published yet, but as the number of companies and individuals is consistent with previous proposals, we can assume, the sanctions imposed on business of Anatoly Tarnavsky, Yuri Chizh and Vladimir Peftiev. The latter is already in the blacklist, along with his three companies, but now the sanctions are expected to extend for his other companies.

The sanctions will come into effect from Saturday, when a list of people falling under the sanctions is announced, according to www.interfax.by.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski called the sanctions an expression of solidarity with the Belarusian society and negative assessment of what the authorities do.

"Some political prisoners are on the verge of death. It can not be left unanswered", Sikorski said in an interview with PAP.

We remind, the owner of "Triple" Yuri Chizh, whose name is most likely is in the "black list" of the EU said yesterday, he doesn't care a bit of the topic of European sanctions.

"Everybody by virtue of one's debauchery and moral foundations prepared our company different gifts", the oligarch said, referring to the 20th anniversary of the company "Triple"

List Belarus officials, which are subject to sanctions, the EU Council adopted on January 31, 2011. Now over 200 names are in there.

The previous list's add-on was on February 27, 2012, that was the beginning of a diplomatic conflict between the EU and Belarus. Belarusian authorities have recommended the head of the EU Maira Mora and the Ambassador of Poland Leszek Sherepka "to go to their capitals for consultations to bring home to their leadership the firm position of the Belarusian side about the unacceptability of pressure and sanctions". As a sign of solidarity, the EU countries withdrew their ambassadors from Minsk. Foreign Ministry stated, the question of returning diplomats in Belarus can't be solved until March 23, when a decision of the EU Council regarding the possible extension of sanctions is taken.