EU prolongs arms embargo against Belarus and sanctions against four individuals


The European Union has decided to extend for one year the arms embargo against Belarus and the sanctions against four individuals whom Brussels suspects of involvement in the high-profile disappearances of 1999-2000.

This is reported by the press service of the European Council.

Last year, the European Union did not limit the export of biathlon equipment to Belarus, but such exports must first be “authorized by the competent national authorities on a case-by-case basis.”

Restrictive measures on the part of the EU towards Belarus were first introduced in 2004 in connection with the disappearances of four people – opposition politicians Yury Zakharanka and Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasouski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski. Then, personal sanctions were applied to the former Interior Minister Uladzimir Naumau, former head of the presidential administration Viktar Sheiman, Yury Sivakou, who occupied the post of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the disappearance of politicians, and Dzmitry Paulichenka, commander of the special forces brigade of the Interior Ministry.

In 2016, almost all sanctions were lifted (sanctions against Naumau, Sheiman, Sivakou and Paulichenko are still in force).

In 2011, the European Union imposed an embargo on the supply of arms to Belarus.

belsat.eu

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