Zmitser Dashkevich: Refusal to buy Belarusian oil products will be real sanctions

A former political prisoner calls the EU sanctions against the Belarusian authorities nominal.

Co-head of Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich said to BelaPAN news agency he though it was a “great mistake to call the EU measures against Belarus sanctions”. “They are nominal measures that demonstrate the EU's position towards Belarus. Sanctions are, for example, a refusal to buy oil products. In this case Lukashenka would release political prisoners immediately and agree on other concessions,” he stressed.

“Will Lukashenka make concessions due to the changes in the EU blacklist? I don't think these steps by the EU will influence his position on political prisoners,” Dashkevich said.

We remind that the European Union yesterday extended sanctions against official Minsk for a year. The list of persons and entities banned from entering the EU and subject to a freeze of the assets in Europe was updated. The EU sanctions are imposed on 232 persons and 25 entities.