U.S. Hits Belarus With New Sanctions Three Years After Crackdown

Washington D.C./10.08.23/Turan:    The Biden Administration on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Belarus three years after mass pro-democracy protests in response to a fraudulent election, which was crushed by the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"Today the Lukashenka regime holds more than 1,500 political prisoners, including individuals detained for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told a daily briefing.

In coordination with its allies and partners, the U.S. sanctioned eight individuals and five entities that "enable Lukashenka’s brutal domestic repression and human rights violations and abuses," as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it in a statement.

Additionally, the State Department said it was also banning visas to 101 Belarusian officials, judges and others accused of subverting democracy.

"The United States continues to stand with the brave people of Belarus as they seek a country grounded in the rule of law, respect for human rights and an accountable, democratically elected government," Blinken noted.

Miller, in his turn, renewed support for Belarus' president-elect Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and activists who are pressing for free and fair elections and a peaceful and sovereign Belarus.

When asked by TURAN's correspondent if Washington was doing 'everything it could' to support Belarus' democratic forces and to hold Belarusian officials accountable during the past three years,  Miller reminded that the U.S. had  "taken a number of actions" over the course of the last 3 years.

"We have spoken to this on a number of occasions; we have made clear that we stand with the Belarusian people, and the sanctions that we rolled out today are just the latest in a long series of sanctions that we have imposed," he added.

Washington "will continue to take whatever actions are necessary and appropriate to hold them accountable for the actions that they take to stifle democracy and dissent in the country," as Miller put it.

Alex Raufoglu