The Council of the European Union has imposed sanctions on 25 individuals and 7 entities for supporting the repressive regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka.
According to the council’s statement, the Central Election Commission, its deputy chair and secretary, as well as its members, have been sanctioned for human rights violations.
The EU has also sanctioned the President’s Property Management Directorate, a government body subordinate to Lukashenko, and several other entities, including OJSC Planar, CEO Sergey Avakov, Precise Electro-Mechanics Plant, director Yuri Tchorny, JSC Integral, Ridotto LLC, which specializes in online gambling, majority shareholder Dzmitry Shvedko, Belorusskiye Loterei, which runs the lottery business in Belarus, and director Mikalai Dzenisenko.
Additionally, the EU also sanctioned Tsybulka-Bel LLC, an agro-company that coordinated with the Belarusian authorities to deploy inmates as forced laborers in direct violation of human rights. The company is owned by German citizen Jörg Dornau , and in 2020 the Belarusian government announced that it would allocate 50 hectares to the entrepreneur for testing five varieties of onion on human land. Among the planned sales markets were not only Belarus but also EU countries.
