New US sanctions against the president of Belarus

The United States renewed economic sanctions against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and targeted several top Russian defense officials in its bid to punish countries that supported Vladimir Putin’s regime’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The United States, with the support of allies and partners, is taking steps to promote accountability for human rights abuses and violations by the Russian and Belarusian governments within and across its borders.Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

“In doing so, we reiterate our condemnation of the premeditated, unjustified and unprovoked war” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “as well as the Lukashenko regime’s support and facilitation of Russia’s invasion” of its neighbor, he added.

Lukashenko has been under US sanctions since 2006, and Washington has tightened restrictions on his government and the country’s economy following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine late last month.

In renewing the measures against him, the Treasury described Lukashenko, in power since 1994, as “head of a corrupt government in Belarus, whose patronage network benefits his entourage and his regime.”

In addition, the State Department prohibited entry to the United States Lukashenko, his wife Galina (sanctioned Tuesday by the Treasury), their two adult sons, Viktor and Dzmitry (already sanctioned by the Treasury last December), and his minor son.

Russian officials sanctioned

The State Department also announced punitive measures Tuesday against 11 Russian defense officials, including eight deputy defense ministers, as well as the director general of a state-controlled organization that trades military items internationally.

Among the Russian officials is Viktor Zolotov, the head of the Moscow National Guard, who Blinken says “has cracked down on Russian citizens who have taken to the streets to protest his government’s brutal campaign in Ukraine” and is also “responsible for to suppress dissent in the occupied areas” of Ukraine.

Two members of Russia’s Federal Security Agency were sanctioned for their involvement in torture, while six others were sanctioned for their attacks on Chechen dissidents living in Europe, the State Department said.

Washington also placed visa restrictions on 25 people it said were involved in “undermining democracy in Belarus.”

In addition to renewing the sanctions against Lukashenko, the Treasury included three Chechen officials and the Russian ministry to which they were attached on its blacklist for their participation in the arrest of Oyub Titiev, head of the Russian human rights NGO Memorial in Chechnya, sentenced for possession of narcotics in a case that his supporters consider a set-up.

Also a Moscow judge, Natalia Mushnikova, was sanctioned by the Treasury under the Global Magnitsky Law of 2017, which allows those who have committed human rights abuses in other countries to be punished.

“Today’s designations demonstrate that the United States will continue to impose concrete and significant consequences on those who commit acts of corruption or are linked to serious human rights abuses,” said the director of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Andrea Gacki, quoted in the statement.

“We condemn Russia’s attacks on humanitarian corridors in Ukraine and call on Russia to end its unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine,” he added.

The Treasury sanctions freeze any assets those involved may have in the United States and prohibit any transactions through the US financial system.