The US government has imposed visa restrictions on several Belarusian citizens for "serious" activities against dissidents outside their country.
On Thursday evening, the Foreign Ministry did not provide any information on which people are specifically affected by the visa restrictions and only spoke of "several Belarusian nationals" and the "suppression of Belarusian athletes abroad".
The US government called on Belarusian leader Alexandr Lukashenko to "end his crackdown on members of civil society, independent media, the political opposition, athletes, students, lawyers and other Belarusians".
In its statement, the ministry explicitly mentioned the case of the Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya. This had caused a great international stir last summer. Timanovskaya was apparently to be kidnapped from the Tokyo Olympics after criticizing her country's sports officials. After several days of uncertainty, the young sprinter fled to Poland. "We stand in solidarity with Ms. Timanovskaya and everyone else who has witnessed the regime's attempts to silence criticism," the ministry said.
The restrictions now imposed are based on a new visa regulation called the “Khashoggi ban”.
It allows the Washington government to impose visa restrictions on individuals engaged in anti-dissident activities outside their country on behalf of foreign governments.
The journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a special command from Riyadh.