(Moscow) Belarus criticized, on Tuesday, the new sanctions approved by the West, accusing them of wanting to overthrow the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, allied with Russia.
A year after the disputed presidential elections in Belarus and the crackdown against the historic protest movement that followed, Washington tightened US sanctions in force since 2006 on Monday, expanding them in particular to include several key sectors of the Belarusian economy.
In addition to a long list of state officials, these measures target companies, entities and businessmen who act as “governors” of the system, according to the US Treasury Department.
The United Kingdom and Canada also tightened sanctions against Belarus on Monday.
In response, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry denounced Tuesday in a statement “unilateral coercive measures” aimed at “undermining the sovereignty and independence of Belarus, as well as the well-being and prosperity of the Belarusian people.”
“The only thing that the West is looking for, dismissively ignoring the results of expressing the will of the Belarusian people, is a change of power in Belarus,” the ministry added.
“By hiding behind hypocritical slogans in defense of human rights and democracy, our Western opponents are actually guided by purely geopolitical calculations,” he added.
Le président biélorusse Alexandre Loukachenko, au pouvoir depuis 1994, s’est pour sa part montré implacable lundi, lors d’une grande conférence de presse télévisée, niant toute répression dans son pays et accustractant ses v dévoir découpir ‘condition “.
