Belarus has asked the ambassadors of the European Union and Poland to leave the country after the EU extended sanctions against officials loyal to authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko.
Minsk also recalled its envoys from Brussels and Warsaw in response to the EU’s decision to freeze assets held in member states by 21 Belarusian judges and senior police officers and to deny them visas for travel to the bloc. More than 200 officials in Mr Lukashenko’s regime are now barred from entering the EU as it raises pressure on Belarus’s leader to free political prisoners and end a crackdown on opposition parties and independent media.
“It has been suggested that the head of the EU delegation to Belarus and the ambassador of Poland to Belarus return to their capitals for consultations to communicate to their leadership the firm position of the Belarusian side that pressure and sanctions are unacceptable,” foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said. Minsk would also ban EU officials responsible for imposing the sanctions from entering Belarus, he added, while stressing Belarus would never bow to EU pressure.
“We have several times at all levels explained the pointlessness of this policy in regard to Belarus . . . If pressure continues to be exerted on Belarus, more measures will be taken to defend our interests,” Mr Savinykh said. Sweden’s foreign minister Carl Bildt responded on Twitter: “Lukashenko throws out ambassadors of EU and Poland. Dictator starts burning the last bridges. Normally does not end well.”