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Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania face travel restrictions against some 30 representatives of Belarus, including President Alexander Lukashenko. On the same day, the Catholic Archbishop of Minsk was denied entry into the country after criticizing police violence in connection with protests critical of the regime.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Stock Photography.
The Baltic sanctions should be seen as a first step and can be extended, depending on the Baltic states.
“We have said that we need a peaceful dialogue and agreement between the regime and society, but we see that the regime is not prepared for this,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Monday.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry announces that sanctions will be treated in a similar way.
The EU as a whole is imposing a series of sanctions similar to those in the Baltic, but has proceeded more slowly, apparently so as not to provoke Belarus’ powerful ally Russia. On Monday, Germany summoned the Belarusian ambassador following the arrest of several foreign journalists in the capital Minsk following protests against Lukashenko.
The Baltic message comes the day after another demonstration with tens of thousands of participants in Minsk demanding Lukashenko’s resignation. The protests have continued since the disputed elections on August 9, which the opposition and much of the outside world have condemned as rigged.
In parallel, it is announced that the opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who fled to neighboring Lithuania after the elections, will speak to the UN Security Council on Friday via video link. Tikhanovskaya has been invited by Estonia, which is currently a member of the Council.
The Belarusian authorities have cracked down on opposition figures before and after the presidential elections. On Monday, the Catholic Archbishop of Minsk was barred from entering the country after a trip to neighboring Poland. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz has previously called on the police to stop using force in connection with demonstrations.
On Friday, Belarus’ foreign minister will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, reports the Russian news agency Interfax. According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko will also meet in Moscow in the coming weeks.
Putin said last week that Russia had established a special police force that could be deployed to support the authoritarian Belarusian leader if the protests degenerate.
