The oppositional Belarusian "People's Anti-Crisis Management" (NAU) has proposed to the EU countries to expand the targeted sanctions list against the country's officials.

It is proposed to "include those involved in falsification of elections, repression of citizens, violence and torture against civilians, such as members of election commissions, officials, heads of enterprises, rectors of universities, representatives of the Belarusian media, judges, investigators, prosecutors, security officials."

This is stated in the official telegram channel of NAU.

In addition, the organization called for new sanctions against the official Minsk.

“Introduce sanctions against individuals and companies that finance the activities of the regime.

Introduce an arms export / import embargo.

Introduce a moratorium on the provision of financial assistance to the regime, with the exception of humanitarian projects (for example, the fight against COVID-19), ”the statement said.

NAU also proposed to contact international financial institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, IFC, EFSD, EBRD, EIB (European Investment Bank), NIB (Nordic Investment Bank), EDB (Eurasian Development Bank) and AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Bank). investment), with the aim of imposing a temporary moratorium on any loans, loan guarantees, insurance, financing, refinancing or other financial assistance.

“To start creating an independent international mechanism to investigate human rights violations in Belarus.

Adopt a joint resolution to support criminal prosecution of persons involved in violence in Belarus, regardless of their location.

European states and international institutions were invited to consider the application of other sanctions against the anti-popular regime, ”the NAU statement said.

The organization claims that its leaders held meetings with high representatives of the Foreign Ministries of Austria, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, the European Parliament and the European Commission, to whom these proposals were sent.

Oppositional hierarchy

The NAU message about the EU's proposal to impose sanctions does not explain in what capacity the mentioned meetings with representatives of the Foreign Ministries of European countries took place and whom the organization represented at them.

It is noted that the head of NAU Pavel Latushko and those responsible for foreign policy at NAU Vladimir Astapenko and Anatoly Kotov participated in the negotiations.

At the same time, the message did not mention Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is called the leader of the opposition by the Western media.

Let us remind you that the so-called “People's Anti-Crisis Administration” was created at the end of October by Pavel Latushko, who is also a member of the Presidium of the Opposition Coordination Council.

Pavel Latushko was a functionary of the Lukashenka government, but after the elections he supported the protesters, was dismissed from his post and soon left for Poland, where he continued his opposition activities.

  • Pavel Latushko

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  • © Evgeny Odinokov

Latushko himself motivated the creation of NAU by the need to ensure the beginning of negotiations with the authorities and maintain stability in the republic during the transition period, as well as the need to help Tikhanovskaya's headquarters in eliminating the crisis.

"While the coordinating council was created to conduct negotiations, the NAU will be a body that ensures the achievement of the following goals: the start of negotiations and stability in the country at the time of the transition of power to democratic forces," Latushko said.

The incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, commenting on the creation of a new opposition body, suggested that the main motivation of the opposition is to receive foreign funding.

Sanctions parade

This is not the first recent appeal by the leaders of the Belarusian opposition with an appeal to introduce a package of sanctions against the official Minsk.

So, earlier the former candidate for the presidency of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya stated that she is seeking the introduction of additional sanctions against the country's leadership, in particular, the termination of work of foreign banks with Belarusian.

She also said that the opposition is discussing the possibility of disconnecting Belarus from the international banking system of settlements SWIFT.

A similar demand was voiced by another opponent of Alexander Lukashenko - ex-presidential candidate and leader of the civil campaign "European Belarus" Andrei Sannikov.

He also called for an embargo on the export of oil products from Belarus and called for the recall of ambassadors from the country.

Prior to that, at a meeting with the leadership of Latvia, Tikhanovskaya suggested introducing economic sanctions, in particular, stopping cooperation with state banks Belarusbank and Belagroprombank, and taking restrictive measures against state-owned enterprises that fire striking workers.

“In particular, Tikhanovskaya urged to revise contracts for the purchase of oil products and metal products, timber and woodworking industries and alcohol from Belarus.

Svetlana also supported the idea of ​​imposing economic sanctions on businesses associated with Lukashenka and the oligarchs close to him, ”the press service of the politician said.

The EU and the United States have imposed sanctions against the official Minsk, but today they are targeted.

On November 6, the European Union expanded the sanctions list to include Alexander Lukashenko.

On November 17, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that if the EU adopts economic sanctions against Minsk on the initiative of the opposition, a response will follow.

  • Meeting of the Belarusian opposition

  • AFP

According to Nikolai Mezhevich, chief researcher at the RAS Institute of Europe, the opposition's task is to involve the EU as much as possible in the conflict with the country's leadership.

“However, the EU countries are not interested in this, since Belarus, although a small state, is located in the center of Europe and has numerous neighbors, as well as nuclear energy, armed forces, international transport corridors.

Even Lithuania, which takes a paranoid position in relation to Belarus, sent its dissatisfaction with the Belarusian nuclear power plant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, and not to the representatives of Tikhanovskaya, ”the political scientist emphasized in a commentary on RT.

The expert added that the opposition's proposal to impose sanctions is incorrect, since the enterprises that operate in Belarus and pay taxes to the state, according to their logic, finance Lukashenka.

“This demonstrates that the people who write Tikhanovskaya’s program statements have a distant idea of ​​international economic relations, hence such strange proposals that baffle even those who are ready to support the Belarusian opposition as much as possible,” Nikolai Mezhevich explained.

RANEPA teacher Sergei Margulis, in an interview with RT, noted that with a series of proposals for imposing sanctions, the leaders of the Belarusian opposition want to attract attention, since they dropped out of the first lines of the international agenda.

“The leaders of the Belarusian protest have been forgotten and are now trying to attract individual attention to themselves with such proposals, since in the last month the main focus of the international community has switched first to the terrorist attacks in France, then to the events in Nagorno-Karabakh and the US elections.

The world media have forgotten a little about the Belarusian problem.

And most likely, in the near future the international community will not be up to the situation in Minsk, ”the expert noted.