Contents tagged with Lukashenko

  • EU imposes sanctions on 78 Belarusian officials including members of Lukashenko's family

    The European Union has decided to freeze assets of 78 Belarusian officials and eight Belarusian companies, reported the Radio Liberty journalist Rikard Jozwiak on Twitter.

    According to him, the EU froze assets and imposed visa bans on several Belarusian businessmen, law enforcement officials, prosecutors, rectors, and high-ranking military officials.

    Family members of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, were also put on the sanctions list.

    Jozwiak added that …

  • Kyiv warns Lukashenko against allowing LPR to interrogate Protasevich

    Alexander Lukashenko will face a tough response from Ukraine if representatives of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic are allowed to interrogate the Belarusian opposition journalist, Roman Protasevich, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

    "It will hurt Alexander Lukashenko. We have enough tools to make it painful for people and countries that do not respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine," the Minister said on air of the TV program "Breakfast with 1.1."

    He reminded that …

  • Lukashenko ready to allow Russian troops into Belarus if necessary

    Self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that he is ready to allow Russian troops in Belarus, if necessary, but sees no need for a Russian permanent military base.

    He said this at a meeting on cooperation with Russia.

    "There were no discussions in terms of the deployment of the Russian Armed Forces on a permanent basis, the creation of some bases. This was not even discussed. And we don't need that. Because, according to our concept of military security of the Union …

  • Putin promises Lukashenko $500 million

    Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Minsk will soon receive the second $500 million tranche of the $1.5 billion dollar loan.

    "Until the end of June, there are no obstacles, everything is agreed,” said Peskov.

    The loan agreement was signed on December 21, 2020. The first $500 million tranche was received by the Belarusian Ministry of Finance on December 30 last year.

    In addition, according to Peskov, the transport ministries of Russia and Belarus have been tasked with " …

  • Lukashenko complains to Putin about pressure from the West

    Self-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko complained about Western pressure during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Deutsche Welle reports.

    The meeting between Putin and Lukashenko took place in Sochi on Friday, May 28.

    Lukashenko complained about restrictive measures against Belarusian airlines, including the state-owned Belavia, after the incident with the forced landing of the Ryanair airliner.

    "This case with the plane, Belavia has nothing to do …

  • Lukashenko threatens the West with Third World War

    Foreign detractors are waging a hybrid war against Belarus, treating it as a testing ground before their "attack on the East", said self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, speaking in the Belarusian parliament.

    According to him, the real goal of "Western strategists" is Russia, against which "one well-known extremist channel, which was born from Belarusian problems, is already actively working."

    "We are on the front line of not just a cold but already an icy war," …

  • EU expands sanctions against Belarus

    EU countries have decided to expand economic sanctions against Belarus, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a two-day summit in Brussels.

    The forced landing of a Ryanair flight to detain the founder and former chief executive of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, which the official Minsk initially attributed to Alexander Lukashenko's personal order and then tried to blame the alleged bomb threat from the Palestinian Hamas movement, is an "unacceptable violation of …

  • Lukashenko diverts Ryanair flight, arrests opposition journalist

    The founder of the opposition Telegram channel Nexta, Roman Protasevich, has been detained in Minsk. Protasevich was on board a Ryanair flight en route from Athens to Vilnius. The plane had to land at the national airport in Minsk after receiving a report that there was an explosive device on board.

    On Lukashenko's order, a fighter jet was scrambled to escort the passenger plane with Protasevich on board, reports the pro-government Belarusian Telegram channel "Pool of the First." Lukashenko …

  • Lukashenko urges Putin to save Belarusian ruble

    The threat of a full-fledged currency crisis in Belarus forces the self-proclaimed President, Alexander Lukashenko, to make concessions on the key direction of integration with Russia, in which he has been holding defense for years. This is the ability to control and print his own national currency.

    After the imposition of US sanctions, which cut off the Belarusian economy from a fifth of export revenues, Lukashenko began to cautiously hint at the need to help maintain the Belarusian ruble …

  • Lukashenko allows security forces to use military equipment during rallies

    The self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has amended the national security laws. According to the new amendments, the security forces are allowed to use military equipment "to suppress mass riots", reports Interfax.

    The new law establishes the conditions and limits of the use of physical force, special means, weapons, combat and special equipment by law enforcement agencies. According to the document, the security forces are not responsible for the harm caused by these …