On the one-year anniversary of Alexander Lukashenko’s sixth re-election, the United States and the United Kingdom announced new sanctions against Belarus.
Both governments, along with the European Union, consider the August 9 election last year a “fraud.”
In a statement issued on Monday (9), British Foreign Secretary Dominic Robb said the new penalties would affect the decision to maintain “certain trade deals, financial aspects” and the “luxury fleet of the President’s aircraft”. Government.
Washington has imposed sanctions on Lukashenko’s re-entry due to “attacks on the democratic aspirations and human rights of the Belarusian people, transnational repression and abuse.” Among the convicted bodies is the Belarus Olympic Committee, which is headed by his son Viktor Lukashenko.
The sporting sentence comes in the wake of a case involving sprinter Kristina Simanuskaya, who tried to force her back for criticizing coaches during the Tokyo Olympics.
Despite not announcing the new fiscal penalties, the EU spoke through Charles Michel, President of the European Council, saying today “marks a year in which the right to freely elect a leader has been taken away from the people of Belarus.”
“The EU is committed to you and will continue to be with you. A legitimate call for a democratic future that respects fundamental freedoms and human rights must finally be heard,” Michael said.
Lukashenko pronounces
The President of Belarus used the date for a press conference and talked about “political integration” with the government of Vladimir Putin in Russia.
“We negotiated about 30 or 31 points, but Putin and I immediately rejected the table containing the political area and Putin’s integration proposal,” he said in an interview with the Russian state news agency Interfax.
At the press conference, Lukashenko said he would step down “very soon” and that he would not “support or push” anyone in the upcoming presidential election because he would “be honest about it”. However, the sentence came at the height of popular opposition to a new election last year and calls for his resignation.
The president defended that there would be a referendum to change the country’s constitution and that it should be discussed in the presidential election as well.
“We have nothing to hide. We want to hold an honest and transparent referendum on constitutional reform for the presidency. We will publish it so that everyone can read it. The people can read the entire constitution. All referendums and all in a democratic way,” he added.
Lukashenko has only been in power since the beginning of the protests and sanctions against Belarus – in the political and financial spheres, due to Putin’s unwavering support for the economy with the help of millionaires.
The president is considered by Europeans and Americans to be “Europe’s last dictator” and has been in power since 1994. The last straw in international relations was the election in August last year, which Lukashenko claims to have won more than 90% of the vote, but all major opponents were prevented from participating.
The results of the election have not even been announced, and citizens have already taken to the streets of the country to protest against the entire election process and demand the president’s resignation. For months, daily, Belarusians called for free elections. Under pressure, Lukashenko said he would not just leave office, but would carry out a constitutional reform and, once voted on, leave the post. .
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