Lukashenka’s dictatorship started nuclear blackmailing of U.S.

In response to the U.S. sanctions Belarus freezes joint projects on highly-enriched nuclear fuel exchange.

“Imposing new economic sanctions by the U.S. goes against the spirit of cooperation and teamwork. In these conditions, Belarus has decided to freeze the projects to exchange highly enriched nuclear fuel developed together with the U.S. as part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The MBA project at the Belarusian State University will be suspended, too,” said Andrei Savinykh, spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry of Belarus, told Interfax-Zapad.

“As before Belarus will continue to guarantee physical security of nuclear fuel, in full accordance with its international non-proliferation commitments. We also do not exclude taking retaliatory measures,” he added.

In his view, if the United States stops using economic coercion against Belarus and restores the normal relations, the cooperation on these projects will be resumed.

He noted that Belarus finds the U.S. economic restrictions against it as ungrounded and unjustified. “These are politically charged decisions which contradict the international commitments of the United States,” he said.

As noted by Savinykh, the action of the U.S. is a blatant violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that banned the U.S. from using economic duress against Belarus.

“The U.S. broke the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act that binds all the states “to refrain from all kinds of economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by another participating State of the rights inherent in its sovereignty”, the spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry said.

The Belarus’ representative has also added that the actions of the U.S. contradict the UN General Assembly Resolution 62/183 that sets forth that “no state can either exert or encourage unilateral economic, political or any other measures aimed at subordinating another state which exercises its sovereign rights”.

Following the brutal violations of human rights in Belarus, the U.S. Treasury imposed a number of economic sanctions against Belarus major enterprises: the Belshina tire factory, the Grodno Azot fertilizer manufacturer, the Grodno Khimvolokno fiber manufacturer, and the Naftan oil refinery. Previously, the U.S. sanctions were applied to 5 Belarusian enterprises: Lakokraska, Polotsk Steklovolokno, Beltechexport, BelOMO, Belorusneft.

These sanctions ban U.S. citizens from any commercial deals with these enterprises, and any assets of the companies under sanctions in the U.S. are freezed.