The European Union has placed 26 Belarusian individuals and 2 organisations on the sanctions list.
According to a written statement from the Council of the EU, Belarusian judges, prison administrators and detention centre officials, the head of the medical unit in one of the correctional institutions ‘where some political prisoners face inhumane conditions and are subjected to abuses’ and transport companies were included in the sanctions list.
The 26 individuals and 2 organisations included in the sanctions list were accused of ‘being responsible for the suppression of civil society and democratic opposition’ and ‘helping to circumvent EU sanctions’.
Vlate Logistik LLC, a Belarusian transport and storage company, which owns two border checkpoints on the EU-Belarus border and enjoys significant tax advantages and benefits from the Lukashenka regime, is one of the two sanctioned entities, together with its shareholders Aleh Barabanau, Aleh Herasim, Aleh Paitrou, Dzmitry Zamulevich, and Uladzimir Arkadzyeu.
The other sanctioned entity is Ruzekspeditsiya LLC, a Belarusian company which benefits from the regime and facilitates the circumvention of EU sanctions by participating in the delivery of cars prohibited to be sold, supplied, transferred or exported from the EU to Belarus. Ruzekspeditsiya is listed together with its owner, Aleh Arlou.
Altogether, EU restrictive measures against Belarus now apply to 287 individuals and 39 entities.
Following this decision, the number of individuals and organisations under EU restrictive measures against Belarus increased to 287 and 39 respectively.
The sanctions include freezing assets, prohibiting EU citizens and companies from providing funds to those on the list, and imposing travel bans on individuals.
