Thursday

28th Mar 2024

EU threatens to expand Belarus travel ban list

  • Minsk: the EU has imposed visa bans on 243 Belarusian officials and businessmen (Photo: Wikipedia)

The EU has said it does not rule out adding more people to its Belarus sanctions list so long as repression continues.

Minsk in April freed two prominent political prisoners - presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov and his aide Dmitry Bondarenko - but Gunnar Wiegand, a senior official in the European External Action Service (EEAS) told press in Brussels on Monday that it is not enough to mend relations.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"The release of two political prisoners has not put the ball in the EU's court. The ball remains in Minsk ... We could probably broaden the number of people on the travel ban," he noted.

Over 240 members of the Belarusian nomenklatura are currently forbidden from entering the EU or doing business in the single market.

The list includes Vladimir Peftiev and Yuriy Chizh, two oligarchs said to feed money to President Alexander Lukashenko, as well as an embargo on arms to Belarus and on goods that could be used for internal repression.

The EU has more top people in its crosshairs, such as Aleksandr Moshensky.

Moshensky, who runs a food and restaurant business called JV Santa Impex Brest, was instrumental in Lukashenko's 2010 presidential election campaign and is said to rank as the number three most influential tycoon behind Peftiev and Chizh.

Meanwhile, obstruction of human rights in Belarus is worsening.

Opposition and civil society are being increasingly harassed, with many given administrative sentences of up two weeks in prison.

The power and authority of the state security service, the KGB, has also been expanded. A recent law passed by Minsk now gives it the right to break into people's homes without a warrant, day or night.

Despite the bleak assessment, Wiegand said the sanctions are effective.

"The fact that we keep up the pressure on the government may very well have contributed to the release of some of the 23 political prisoners," he noted.

Among those still behind bars is human rights defender Ales Bialistki and political prisoner Syarhei Kavalenka.

Kavalenka - whose crime was planting a banned Belarus national white-red-white flag on top of a Christmas tree in Vitebsk - was diagnosed with hepatosis last week. He is serving a two-year sentence.

Bialiatski - the imprisoned head of the Belarus human rights center Viasna - is facing mounting prison restrictions for refusing to admit his guilt for alleged tax evasion. He is serving a four and a half year sentence.

Sannikov's spokesperson Alexander Atroshchonkau told EUobserver the EU's sanctions did contribute his boss's release.

"Targeted economic sanctions in today's form are quite symbolic ... [But] the system built by Lukashenko's clan is so ineffective that they are extremely sensitive to even very limited restrictive measures," he said.

Joerg Forbrig - an expert on Belarus at the Berlin-based NGO, the German Marshall Fund - also told this website the sanctions have influenced decision making.

Minsk, says Forbrig, released Sannikov and Bondarenko "to avert further and more painful EU measures."

He urged the EU to expand sanctions and to target Belarus oil exports.

Last year, crude oil and oil products accounted for 36 percent of Belarus' sales to the Union. Just over 16 percent was potash and fertiliser. In total, trade between the two surged by 69 percent in 2011 despite the political deep freeze.

Lukashenko trying to outwit EU and Russia

Selling arms firms from yourself to yourself, labelling petrol as solvents then petrol again - Lukashenko is trying to make a living while being squeezed by the EU and Russia.

EU creates pro-democracy fund

EU states have agreed to create a European fund to promote "deep and sustainable democracy" in neighbouring countries.

US and EU breaking taboos to restrain Israel

The US abstained and all EU states on the UN Security Council backed a call for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, as Europe prepares to also blacklist extremist Israeli settlers.

EU warns Russia over Moscow terror attacks

Europe has warned Russia not to use the weekend's terror attacks in Moscow as a pretext to escalate its war in Ukraine and crackdown on internal dissent.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us