Enlarge image
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko (r) with his Defense Minister Viktor Chrenin (l)
Photo: Pavel Orlovsky / AP
The European Union is increasing pressure on Belarus after a Ryanair plane has been forced to land.
Sanctions were imposed on several high-ranking politicians, including Defense Minister Viktor Chrenin and Transport Minister Alexei Avramenko.
This emerges from a list published in the EU Official Journal.
Entry and asset bans apply to those affected.
A total of 166 people are now on the sanctions list.
Belarus landed a Ryanair plane in Minsk at the end of May and had the anti-government blogger Roman Protassevich and his girlfriend arrested.
Since the presidential election on August 9th last year, protests have been going on in the former Soviet republic against the ruler Alexander Lukashenko, who was declared the winner after the controversial vote.
The protests left several dead, hundreds injured and thousands arrested.
Human rights activists criticize torture in Belarusian prisons.
At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the member states also agreed to impose further economic sanctions on Lukashenko and dozens of other supporters.
The new punitive measures are intended to target the potash and fertilizer industries as well as oil companies and the country's financial services sector.
The decision is to be implemented in the next few days.
"In this way we want to contribute to the fact that this regime is financially dried up," said Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD). He admitted that the sanctions would have undesirable side effects for the German economy. "We will certainly also be affected in the energy sector, where there are connections." The fact that many countries are willing to accept their own losses is a sign that they are very determined.
According to EU circles, Austrian banks, among others, will be affected by the planned sanctions against the Belarusian financial services sector.
The effects on the energy sector in Germany result from the fact that Belarus exports many petroleum products to Germany.
According to the Belarusian embassy in Berlin, they made up around 37 percent of the country's exports to the Federal Republic of Germany in 2020.
In addition, according to diplomats, the tobacco industry and companies that offer weapons or surveillance technology, for example, will be affected.
Associated with Putin
Fears that the punitive measures would push Lukashenko even more into the arms of Russian President Vladimir Putin were rejected in Luxembourg.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis pointed out that Lukashenko was already so connected with Putin that he couldn't be pushed closer.
According to Landsbergis, the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who was invited to breakfast with the EU ministers, made a similar statement.
Tichanovskaya had repeatedly called on the EU to take harsher punitive measures.
mrc / dpa / AFP
