Europe prepares "extremely tough" sanctions against the Belarusian regime

Europe is preparing to exert "extremely strict political and diplomatic pressure" to Belarus in response to repression after the presidential election on December 19, when hundreds of opposition activists and many candidates were behind bars. Their discussion will continue on Thursday evening by the leadership of the European Parliament after the head of the hedgehog Buzek called on his hard measures the day before. He performed at an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Brussels, which took place with the participation of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition remaining free.

The general position of the European Union on the situation will be developed during January, writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta . The resolution on Belarus will be raised during the plenary meeting next week in Strasbourg. And the decision on sanctions will be discussed on January 31 at a meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the EU countries.

During the environment, the Minsk delegation, headed by the former unified opposition candidate in the 2006 presidential election, Alexander Milinkevich also met with representatives of various European parliamentary factions and held an important conversation with the President of the European Parliament by the Jerzy Buzec and the supreme representative of the European Union on Foreign Affairs Baroness Katherine Ashton.

- Lukashenko is trying to intimidate relatives and close prisoners
- A call from the KGB pre -trial detention center: "If there is no news from me, do everything!"

At the hearings of the proposals on sanctions were very different: from visa sanctions and freezing foreign assets of President Alexander Lukashenko and his associates to the exception of Belarus from the Eastern Partnership program and the prohibition on its participation in the Olympic Games and the World Cup, Kommersant reports.

Sports sanctions were personally suggested by Jerzy Buzek, which, as noted by Gazeta.ru , sounded quite unexpectedly, but could be a very sensitive blow for Lukashenko. In particular, Belarus may be deprived of the right to hold the World Hockey Championship in 2014. Hockey is a favorite sport of the President, who himself often goes on the ice with a club. In addition, the upcoming championship is used in the country, it is used by state propaganda, and preparation for it is as actively as in Russia preparations for the Sochi Olympics.

The EU will support the Belarusian opposition and youth as much as possible

The second part of the measures, now positive, is proposed to be directed to the support of the Belarusian opposition and youth. Buzek called for the maximum support, including financial, opposition and non -governmental organizations, including those that "which the authoritarian regime refused to register."

The head of the European Parliament also proposed to adopt a program for supporting education and student exchanges, primarily grants for teaching Belarusian students in Europe, in particular, in the Baltic countries. Many deputies consider it necessary to accept at European universities on a free basis of students excluded from Belarusian educational institutions for participating in rallies. In addition, in Europe they are ready to facilitate the visa regime for some categories of citizens of Belarus, including journalists.

The proposal of the "duality" of the reaction of Europe came from Alexander Milinkvich, and most of the audience, including representatives of the European Commission, the European Council and the OSCE, agreed with it. The performance of the ex-candidate was met with stormy applause, but most of all they clapped Eve Neklyaeva, the daughter of candidate Vladimir Neklyaev, who was in custody. “The fate of the Belarusian opposition depends on international solidarity. The keys to the camera of my father in your hands,” she turned to those present.

The European Union requires Belarus to liberate all political prisoners, whom the organization of Amnesty International recognized as "prisoners of conscience." According to Katherine Ashton, she “wants to meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus only in order, looking into his eyes, to warn: the Belarusian authorities have a few days and hours to let all the arrested and try to establish relations with the EU. Otherwise, the most stringent sanctions will be imposed.”

At the same time, the announcement of Alexander Lukashenko Persona non grata in Europe is not talking about, although Western media believe that this would be an effective measure. The Financial Times in the editorial article, which is referred by Inopressa , calls for Europe to give Lukashenko a "decisive rebuff". While Lukashenko oppresses his people, there can be no question of normal relations, the publication emphasizes, according to which the EU must make it clear to the former republics of the USSR, that rapprochement is impossible without observing the minimum standards of freedom and decency.

"Gazeta.Ru" especially notes that this time the introduction of sanctions against Belarus was even supported by the traditional defender of the regime before Europe, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Lukashenko's regime is trying to intimidate relatives and close prisoners

Meanwhile, Minsk resorted to a traditional threat - rapprochement with Russia. As the deputy from Germany said Elmar Brock, the Belarusian ambassador in Berlin already wrote to him that if the EU resolution is critical, Belarus will be forced to more closely cooperate with Russia, the publication reports.

In addition, while Europe is discussing the possibility of visa sanctions against Belarusian officials, they themselves already interfere with the departure of the opposition and their relatives abroad. So, the wife of the arrested candidate Ales Mikhalevich could not go to the conference in Poland, where the situation in Belarus is being discussed.

Milana Mikhalevich informed Interfax that on Wednesday evening, the KGB officers stopped the car in which she was traveling to the border, and the senior KGB lieutenant presented a document that reported the authorities on the ban on her departure until the investigation in the criminal case of riots.

"Our car returned to Minsk, accompanied by at least five cars in which law enforcement officers were located," she added. Mikhalevich also said that she had a search of her house that evening - not the first from the day her husband was detained.

A call from the KGB pre -trial detention center: "If there is no news from me, do everything!"

Earlier, Ales Mikhalevich was able to call his wife from the KGB pre -trial detention center, BBC reports. He asked her to "behave as it should," not to go to Warsaw and Brussels. “If you behave as it should, and you won’t go to certain places, then within a week you will be able to hear my voice again,” he said. "What will they do to you if I do not be silent?" Milan asked her husband. “The worst than it is, they won’t do with me,” he answered. But at the end of the controlled conversation, he managed to say: "If there is no news from me within a week, do everything!"

According to the Internet sources that the agency referred to, they also did not allow to go to the conference in Warsaw and Tatyana Severinets, the mother of Pavel Severinets, the proxy of the ex-candidate of the president Vitaly Rymashevsky. Severinets, like Ales Mikhalevich, is the accused in the case of riots and is under arrest in the KGB pre -trial detention center. Under the subscription of the wizard, the candidate Grigory Kostusev is also located.

“This is an attempt to intimidate the relatives and friends of the arrested, intimidation of all Belarusian citizens. But the authorities do not know what they are creating - such actions are destructive for the authorities themselves. For the simplest layman will not be able to remain calm when they mock women and children. People talk about this indignantly and louder,” the human rights activist Lyudmila Gryaznova commented on.

She recalled the situation with the parents of the arrested journalist Irina Halip - they were informed that they could take a three -year -old grandson from them, and Irina's father began to lose sight of stress.