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Alexander Lukashenko
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Nikolay Petrov / dpa
The European Union threatened the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko with additional sanctions on the anniversary of his re-election, which was criticized as falsified. "In view of the regime's blatant disregard for international obligations, the EU is ready to consider further measures," said EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell on Sunday on behalf of the 27 member states. With the exploitation of migrants for political purposes and the forced landing of a passenger plane, Belarus has called further international norms into question.
Borrell was alluding to the fact that more than 2000 illegal border crossings were registered at the border between EU member Lithuania and Belarus (formerly: Belarus) in July alone.
From an EU perspective, this is being done specifically by the government in Minsk.
Lukashenko had openly threatened to let people from countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria pass through in response to the EU sanctions.
The EU published the declaration on the anniversary of the presidential election in the former Soviet republic on August 9th last year.
After that, Lukashenko was declared the winner despite massive allegations of election fraud.
He had mass protests suppressed by force.
The EU has already imposed several sanctions in recent months because of the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition.
Most recently, after the arrest of the blogger Roman Protassewitsch, who was critical of the government, there were also economic sanctions.
Authorities in Belarus had forced a European passenger plane on its way from Athens to Vilnius in Lithuania to make a stopover in Minsk in order to be able to arrest the critic of Lukashenko.
The EU also called for the release of more than 600 political prisoners and free and fair elections on Sunday.
Opposition in fear
One year after the protests began in Belarus, opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya said many of her compatriots around the world fear the authoritarian authorities of the ruler Alexander Lukashenko.
"Almost every Belarusian has a relative or friend who is in prison," she told SPIEGEL.
"A great many people have sacrificed their freedom - that is a great responsibility for everyone."
The case of the Belarusian Olympic athlete Kristina Timanovskaya had shown that anyone could fall victim to Lukashenko's "machinery of repression," said Tichanovskaya.
The athlete, who, according to her own account, was supposed to be kidnapped by the Olympic Games in Tokyo for criticizing Belarusian sports officials, was only telling the truth.
In the last few weeks, Alexander Lukashenko had made several speeches against the EU sanctions against his regime, which he called "extortion" on several occasions and compared it to a military "punitive operation".