Belaruskali, Belarus NOC, Lukashenka’s bagmen: USA issues ‘largest round of sanctions to date’

Today, on the anniversary of the fraudulent Belarusian election of 9 August 2020, the US Department of the Treasury is issuing its largest round of sanctions to date against Belarusian individuals and entities, including:

• Belaruskali OAO, which is one of Belarus’s largest state-owned enterprises, one of the world’s largest producers of potash, and a source of illicit wealth for the regime;

• The Belarusian National Olympic Committee, which is accused of facilitating money laundering, sanctions evasion, and the circumvention of visa bans, and which the International Olympic Committee has publicly reprimanded for its failure to protect Belarusian athletes from political discrimination and repression;

• Prominent businesspeople who support the Lukashenka regime as well as fifteen companies with which they are affiliated – including Absolutbank, a private Belarusian bank; and,

• Additional entities that operate in the tobacco products, construction, energy, and transportation sectors of the Belarus economy.

Moreover, US President Joseph Biden signed an Executive Order [E.O.] imposing further consequences upon Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his regime for their ongoing assault against the democratic aspirations and human rights of the Belarusian people, transnational repression and abuse, affronts to international norms, and corruption.

This order provides strengthened authorities that empower the United States to raise the costs on the Lukashenka regime. Specifically, it expands the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13405 of June 16, 2006, by authorizing the imposition of blocking sanctions on persons operating in certain identified sectors of the Belarus economy, including the defense and related materiel sector, security sector, energy sector, potassium chloride (potash) sector, tobacco products sector, construction sector, transportation sector, or any other sector of the Belarus economy as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State.

“The Biden administration’s position remains clear: the Lukashenka regime must permit a legitimate international investigation into the Ryanair flight diversion; it must immediately release all political prisoners; it must stop targeting activists and dissidents, including across borders, and it must initiate a genuine and comprehensive political dialogue with democratic opposition and civil society figures that results in a free and fair presidential election under OSCE observation. Absent such steps, the US government will continue to use this executive order and other authorities to impose costs on the Lukashenka regime and its support network,” the statement reads.

belsat.eu, via whitehouse.org