Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis: The EU's sanctions are against the regime, not the people of Belarus
On 21 June, the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg focused on the EU's response to repression and systematic human rights violations by the Belarusian regime. Prior to the meeting, Foreign Ministers had an informal breakfast meeting with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, representative of the Belarusian pro-democratic forces, who came to Luxembourg at the invitation of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borell. In the meeting, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis voiced his strong support to the people of Belarus, who were struggling for democratic change in the country. According to Lithuania's Foreign Minister, Belarusians must know that they will not be left to fight the regime on their own. The EU is ready to provide serious economic support for the democratic transformation of Belarus.
As regards the implementation of the conclusions adopted at the European Council on 24-25 May, Landsbergis welcomed the nearing conclusion of the EU agreement on sectoral sanctions and stressed the importance of preparing a legal basis for the sanctions and of imposing them as soon as possible.
“We strongly support the fourth package of sanctions, which has been definitively adopted today. We also attach great importance to the agreement on sectoral sanctions, which we expect to be concluded already this week. These sanctions are against the regime, not the people of Belarus. The Kremlin finances Lukashenko’s debts and losses. Therefore, the price to be paid by the Belarusian Prime Minister will also be paid by Putin," said the Foreign Minister.
The Council adopted the 4th package of targeted sanctions against the physical persons and legal entities (78 individuals and 8 companies) – judges, prosecutors, and investigators – who had participated in or directly contributed to the electoral fraud, repression, torture and other human rights violations in Belarus, including the persecution of independent journalists and bloggers. In addition, sanctions were imposed on those university rectors, who had kicked out students for protesting against the regime, as well as on individuals, who had financially supported Lukashenko and his regime. Today's blacklist also includes 7 individuals and 1 entity responsible for the interception and the forced landing of the Ryanair fight FR4978 in Minsk, as well as for the detention of a journalist Raman Protasevich and his friend Sofia Sapega.
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