Biden administration takes new action against Belarus’s Lukashenko
SMA NEWS – WASHINGTON
President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order imposing new measures aimed at punishing Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko as the US steps up pressure against his government in co-ordinated action with the UK and Canada.
On the anniversary of the presidential election Mr Lukashenko is accused of rigging, the US will also issue its largest round of sanctions to date on Belarusian people and entities, taking aim at the country’s economy and the Belarusian National Olympic Committee, a White House official said.
“Today, we are issuing a new executive order that enhances our ability to impose costs on the regime and announcing new sanctions against Belarusian individuals and entities for their role in attacks on democracy and human rights, transnational repression and corruption,” Mr Biden said in a statement on the sanctions.
“As I told the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, we stand with the people of Belarus as they bravely pursue their democratic aspirations.”
The US Treasury Department will blacklist Belaruskali OAO, which the official said is one of Belarus’s largest state-owned enterprises and one of the world’s largest producers of potash, a product used in fertilisers.
The Belarusian National Olympic Committee will also be hit with sanctions in Monday’s action, the official said, over accusations it enabled money laundering, sanctions evasion and the circumvention of visa bans.
The action comes after Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refused to board a flight home during the Olympics after she was taken to the airport against her wishes. She has since sought refugee status in Poland.
