Minsk threatens to retaliate for sanctions with new criminal cases
February 28, Pozirk. Belarusian law enforcement agencies are familiarizing themselves with the “new illegal restrictive measures” against Belarus, reads the foreign ministry’s statement.
The sanctions may serve as a pretext for filing criminal charges against “persons who initiated them, including those who have already been convicted of similar crimes, but who still avoid serving their sentences by hiding abroad,” it noted.
Belarusian authorities will pay special attention to the European Union’s support of civil society and Belarusian pro-democracy forces, the statement said.
The foreign ministry also expressed concern about “Brussels’ blatant support for exclusively pro-Western, Russophobic and nationalist forces.”
Minsk interprets EU dealings with “persons who receive asylum and external financing in Poland and Lithuania” and call for regime change in Belarus as support of criminals, financing extremism and backing terrorist ways of achieving political goals, the statement stressed.
The foreign ministry described the EU valuations of the February 25 parliamentary and local elections as “unsuccessful attempts to interfere in the internal affairs” of Belarus. Statements themselves are “full of blatant falsifications” and “detached from reality,” it added.
The EU’s declaration of support for the Belarusian people amid the tightening economic restrictions can be regarded as “cynical duplicity,” the foreign ministry said.
Concerns about Belarus’s domestic policies are meaningless as “the eurobureaucracy and the majority of the EU members” refuse to engage with Minsk, it noted.
The foreign ministry accused the EU of pursuing “an unpromising and dangerous line of confrontation” instead of “returning to an equal dialogue in order to restore trust and ensure security in the region.”
The February 25 elections for the House of Representatives and local councils in Belarus took place amid mass reprisals and a political landscape purge. Not a single opposition candidate was allowed to run.
The United States condemned the Belarus’ elections as a sham. Foreign ministries of Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden as well as Ukrainian and German MPs and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe made similar statements.
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign and security chief, said that new parliamentary and local officials lack democratic legitimacy.
EU prolongs sanctions against Belarus
February 26, Pozirk. The EU Council has prolonged restrictive measures linked to internal repression and Minsk’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine for another year, until February 28, 2025. “The EU is signaling to the political and economic actors responsible that their …