andreas

Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for further economic sanctions and other measures against Alexander Lukashenko and his regime in Belarus.

With 626 votes for and 16 votes against, the European Parliament denounced the hijacking of a civilian aircraft in May, which subsequently made it possible for the authorities of Belarus to arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich and detain his girlfriend. In the resolution, the parliament joined the calls from the leader of democratic Belarus, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and called for the immediate release of all political prisoners in Belarus. The parliament is calling for further sanctions against Belarusian state owned industry and against prosecutors, judges, law enforcement officers and other officials involved in supporting Lukashenko and upholding his unlawful rule.

The adopted resolution also called for the suspension of Belarus in international sport championships, and to withdraw broadcasting rights of international sport events to the state owned public broadcaster TVR, which has been leading in the propaganda efforts of the dictatorship.

After the first overseas trip of president Joe Biden, where he met with the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the president of the European Council Charles Michel, the U.S. and the European Union issued a statement on their common approach towards Russia.

In the joint statement, the U.S. and EU stated: ”We condemn Russia’s continued actions to undermine Ukraine’s and Georgia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. We call on Russia to ensure foreign diplomatic missions in Russia can operate in a safe, secure and productive fashion. We urge Russia to stop its continuous crackdown on civil society, the opposition and independent media and release all political prisoners”.

The statement was issued just days after the decision by Russian officials to ban the national organisation and regional branches of Alexey Navalny’s anti corruption movement. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 immediately after his return to Russia following the attempts to poison him in the summer of 2020. The U.S.-European summit also decided to establish an common high-level dialogue on Russia.

Belarusian democracy activist Stsiapan Latypau tried to cut his throat today, as he was faced with charges of staging actions violating public order, with an expected prison sentence of 10 years.

Latypau, who has been held in prison for months, was active in the protest movement against Lukashenko during the 2020 falsified elections. One of his recorded activities has been handing out flowers to protesting women in an act of support.

Reports say that Belarusian authorities have threatened to open criminal cases against his family and friends if he did not plead guilty. He is now in coma.