US impose new sanctions against Belarusian authorities for Russian invasion of Ukraine

February 25, BPN. The United States imposed new sanctions against Belarusian authorities for supporting Russian invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions list includes banks, enterprises of the military-industrial complex, and generals.

“As part of the United States’ serious and expansive response to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning 24 Belarusian individuals and entities due to Belarus’s support for, and facilitation of, the invasion,” the US Treasury said in its statement.

It noted that the sanctions would cover the areas where Belarus and Russia have the closest ties: defense and banking.

“Belarus has become increasingly reliant on Russia for economic, political, and military support in recent years as the regime has clung to power following the fraudulent August 2020 presidential election,” the US Treasury stated.

According to the US authorities, the Belarusian economy is highly dependent on key Russian financial institutions and their subsidiaries, including Sberbank, VTB Bank, and Vnesheconombank (VEB). Restrictions on Sberbank, VTB, and VEB, combined with measures against Belarusian banks, “target nearly one-fifth of the country’s entire financial sector.”

“Having already sacrificed its legitimacy to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people, the Lukašenka regime is now jeopardizing Belarus’s sovereignty by supporting Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “Treasury continues to disrupt Belarus’s military and financial capabilities through targeted sanctions.  Further, due to the interconnectedness between the two countries, the actions Treasury took against Russia today will also impose severe economic pain on the Lukašenka regime.”

The US Treasury notes that this decision followed the introduction of five packages of sanctions against the Belarusian authorities. “The Lukašenka regime has continued to erode democracy in Belarus and has become increasingly subservient to Russia in the process. Proposed amendments to the Belarusian constitution will exacerbate that trend and will pave the way for increased Russian influence in Minsk,” the US Treasury believes.

The sanctions list includes:

1. Belinvestbank

2. Dabrabyt Bank

3. “Belinvest-Engineering” (sale and rental of real estate)

4. “Belbusinessleasing”

5. State Authority for Military Industry (SAMI)

6. Dzmitry Pantus, the Chairman of SAMI

7. Viačaslaŭ Rassalaj, the Deputy Chairman of SAMI

8. Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant (MZKT)

9. Aliaksiej Rymašeŭski, MZKT Director General

10. Aliaksandr Vecianevič, MZKT’s Deputy Director General, former head of the Maladzečna Interdistrict Department of the KGB Directorate for Minsk and Minsk region

11. Belspetsvneshtechnika (BSVT)

12. KB Radar-Managing Company Holding Radar System

13. 558 Aircraft Repair Plant 

14. Integral

15. Minotor-Service (production of armored vehicles)

16. Oboronnye Initsiativy (production of airborne defense suites that protect military aircrafts and helicopters from guided missiles)

17. TSP Scientific Production Limited Liability Company (produces a surface-to-air missile systems)

18. Synesis (development of video surveillance systems)

19. 24×7 Panoptes, a former Synesis subsidiary

20. Aliaksandr Šatroŭ, the owner of Synesis

21. Viktar Chrenin, Belarusian Minister of Defense

22. Aliaksandr Val’fovič, the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus

23. Sokhra (gold mining, wholesale)

24. Aliaksandr Zajcaŭ, the owner of Sokhra.