Baltic countries prepare new personal sanctions against Belarus

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevich said that the Baltic states have agreed to jointly expand the blacklists of those responsible for suppressing protests in Belarus.

"Based on the immigration law, I have decided to include two Belarusian citizens on the list of undesirable persons in the Republic of Latvia, imposing a ban on their entry to Latvia indefinitely. To quote the classic: "We don't need such hockey," Rinkevich wrote on Twitter.

According to him, Latvia has decided to ban entry to two citizens of Belarus - Belarus kickboxer Dmitry who is believed to be affiliated with Lukashenko’s eldest son, as well as the head of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation Dmitry Baskov. They are suspected of involvement in the death of activist Roman Bondarenko.

Also, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that the EU countries are preparing to expand the list of personal sanctions against Belarus to more than 200 people.

She said in a statement that the opposition team is negotiating with other countries to expand the sanctions lists.

"Since last week, we have been actively working on economic sanctions against businesses and state-owned companies that support the regime. In addition, it is expected that the EU countries will expand the list of personal sanctions to more than 200 names," Tikhanovskaya said.

The opposition leader added that work is underway to ensure that "foreign banks stop lending and cooperate with Belarusian state-owned banks."

"We are discussing the possibility of disconnecting Lukashenko's regime from the Swift system," Tikhanovskaya said.

In early October, the leaders of the European Union countries agreed to impose sanctions against almost 40 Belarusian officials responsible for violations in the presidential elections and violent actions against protesters.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry responded by imposing sanctions against the European Union.

  Baltics, Belarus, EU

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