U.S. to Reimpose Sanctions on Belarus Over Forced Plane Landing

 The New York Times

U.S. to Reimpose Sanctions on Belarus Over Forced Plane Landing

Mike Ives  1 hr ago  (MAY 29, 2021)

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The Biden administration said late Friday that it would reimpose economic sanctions on certain state-owned companies in Belarus, the latest diplomatic pushback from a Western government after the country’s authoritarian leader forced down a European passenger jet last weekend.

President Biden has denounced Belarus for forcing a passenger jet to land in Minsk and arresting a dissident journalist who was onboard.© Doug Mills/The New York Times President Biden has denounced Belarus for forcing a passenger jet to land in Minsk and arresting a dissident journalist who was onboard.

The plane, a Ryanair Boeing 737 headed from Greece to Lithuania, was traveling through Belarusian airspace on Sunday when it was diverted and forced to land in Minsk, the capital, with an escort from a fighter jet. Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition journalist who had been living in exile abroad, was detained along with his girlfriend after the plane landed.

Belarus’s president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a brutal and eccentric strongman, has claimed that he rerouted the plane because of an emailed bomb threat, not to seize Mr. Protasevich. But a Swiss email provider has said that the email cited by the Belarusian authorities was sent after the plane had already been diverted.

Leaders of European Union countries, outraged by what some called a state hijacking, have pledged to impose new economic sanctions against Mr. Lukashenko’s government and have begun severing direct air links to Belarus. President Biden this week directed his team “to develop appropriate options to hold accountable those responsible” for the forced landing, in coordination with the European Union and other partners.

The European Union has been severing direct air links to the country since the forced landing.© Associated Press Boarding a train to Moscow in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on Friday. The European Union has been severing direct air links to the country since the forced landing.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Friday night that sanctions on nine state-owned Belarusian enterprises that had been lifted by the Treasury Department would be reimposed on June 3.

The United States, along with the European Union and other allies, is also developing a list of sanctions to be imposed on members of Mr. Lukashenko’s government associated with “ongoing abuses of human rights and corruption, the falsification of the 2020 election and the events of May 23,” she added.

The claim of election fraud was a reference to last summer, when Mr. Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, claimed to have won 80 percent of the vote in what many Western governments said was a sham election. His claim prompted mass demonstrations that were met with a police crackdown.

Spokespeople for Mr. Lukashenko’s government could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.

Mr. Protasevich, the detained journalist, co-founded a Telegram channel that is a popular opposition outlet in Belarus and was used to help mobilize the protests last year. Mr. Biden has called for the release of the 26-year-old, saying that his arrest and a video that he made recently while in state custody — apparently under duress — were “shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press.”

On top of the sanctions announced on Friday, the United States will also suspend its application of a 2019 air services agreement with Belarus, and it recently advised American citizens not to travel to the country, Ms. Psaki said in the statement.

“We take these measures, together with our partners and allies, to hold the regime accountable for its actions and to demonstrate our commitment to the aspirations of the people of Belarus,” she said.