The European Union (EU) foreign ministers have recently agreed to impose sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in an effort to counter his authoritarian rule, and a formal announcement is expected to be made at the EU summit on September 15 or 16.
An EU source said that Lukashenko’s secret inauguration on September 23, despite public opinion, was the biggest reason for the EU’s decision to impose sanctions, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. Another source said that the sanctions will be formally proposed at the EU summit on September 15-16 and will come into effect after formal approval by the EU Council.
According to the report, before the EU foreign ministers reached a consensus, some in the EU were actually reluctant to impose sanctions on Lukashenka because they wanted to keep a communication channel with the Belarusian side. In the past, it has taken weeks to months to implement the sanctions.
Belarus held presidential elections in August of this year and Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years, was re-elected with 80% of the vote, which led to public questions about the government’s vote tampering. The public discontent turned into a series of protests and violence, which led to the exile of several Belarusian opposition leaders. The European Union issued a statement on September 16 that it does not recognize Lukashenko as the legitimate president.
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