Brussels sources say EU set to impose sanctions on Alexander Lukashenko

Representatives of the EU’s member states have agreed on new sanctions against high-level Belarusian officials, including Alexander Lukashenko, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday, November 4.

A source from a delegation to the Council of the European Union apparently confirmed that Lukashenko is on the forthcoming sanctions list. The source said that the EU Council is set to approve the list officially in the coming days.

On Twitter, RFE/RL Europe Editor Rikard Jozwiak reported that EU ambassadors are planning to impose asset freezes and visa bans on Lukashenko and 14 other Belarusian nationals on Friday, November 6. 

According to Deutsche Welle, Brussels sources say the sanctions will target Lukashenko’s son Viktor (who is also his national security advisor), as well as his Chief of Staff Igor Sergeenko, and Belarus’s KGB chief Ivan Tertel.

At the beginning of October, the European Union imposed sanctions on more than 40 Belarusian officials for electoral fraud during the 2020 presidential elections and the violent crackdown on opposition protesters that followed it. At the time, Lukashenko was excluded from the sanctions list. According to Brussels, this was an attempt to preserve the opportunity for dialogue with Minsk.

In mid-October, the European Union announced its readiness to add Lukashenko to its sanctions list if the situation in Belarus did not improve.