Welt: EU Will Not Impose Sanctions against Lukashenko

As to Die Welt, the European Union will not impose sanctions against President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, RIA Novosti informed. According to the newspaper, Germany was the first to speak out against the restrictive measures, France and Italy supported it. It is noted that the leaders of these countries intend to "keep open channels for dialogue." At the same time, a number of EU countries, including Poland and the Baltic republics, adhere to a reverse position and insist on adding Lukashenko to the sanctions list. The sanctions issue Earlier, Reuters reported citing an informed source in Ottawa that Canada, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom are discussing possible sanctions against Belarus. According to the interlocutor, if such sanctions are introduced, it will happen "in the not so distant future." At the same time, by decision of the national governments, the sanctions were imposed by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They denied entry to 30 Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko. It was also reported that the US is considering the possibility of imposing sanctions against seven Belarusian officials, who, in their opinion, were involved in rigging the August 9, election results. Asymmetric response Minsk stated that an asymmetric response would follow the sanctions. "God be their judge. We know about the list of sanctions. We also held an interagency agreement, prepared and approved asymmetric sanctions. We will give an adequate response," Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei assured during the conference. “They want to be ahead of the rest of the world. We previously discussed the use of sanctions instruments and agreed that sanctions are an absolutely unacceptable form of interstate relations. And it was surprising to me hearing these states’ voices on the next day after elections it was necessary to impose sanctions. It takes time to assess the situation realistically, "he stressed. Elections in Belarus On August 9, the presidential elections were held in Belarus and according to the CEC, Lukashenko won obtaining 80.1 percent of the vote. His main rival Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya obtained 10.12 percent. The opposition did not recognise these results and announced Coordination Council creation for power transfer. Meanwhile, Tsikhanouskaya decided to leave the republic for Lithuania. Once election results announced, massive unauthorized actions began, which at first were harshly suppressed by the security forces. In the early days, tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets were used against the disaffected. Then law enforcement officers stopped breaking up the rallies. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 6.7 thousand people were detained during the protests, hundreds of people were injured, among them at least 120 security officials. The Ministry of Health announced three persons died.