Sanctions against Putin and Lukashenko’s regimes can come in one package

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, Gabrielius Landsbergis, is convinced that there is an intention in Brussels to equalize EU sanctions against the Russian and Belarusian regimes.The Lithuanian Foreign Minister also said that his country would support this process, as it would help to close the transit of sanctioned goods to Russia .Speaking to Lithuanian journalists about this, Gabrielius Landsbergis, in particular, said: “Usually we don’t release anything until the negotiations are over. Now, to be honest, they just started, last night they discussed the sanctions presented. I can only say that there are names of specific individuals, there are sectoral sanctions. He added that the process of imposing sanctions will not be easy, but that Lithuania is making steady progress.The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania also stressed the need to include Rosatom in the sanctions list: “I hope that we will not avoid this topic, several stages of which have already been closed, but I hope discussions will continue,” he said.
On Thursday, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a decision by which it approved its requests for the creation of a special court for the crime and the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine . It pays great attention to the creation of a new international legal mechanism to punish the crime of aggression. The Assembly also paid particular attention to the fact that the representatives of the leaders of Russia and Belarus, who are mentioned at the same level in the document, should be responsible for the crime of aggression.The correspondent of the Russian service media spoke with Lithuanian and Belarusian experts on this topic.“For the sanctions to be effective, they must also be directed against Belarus”Gabrielius Landsbergis’ predecessor as Lithuanian foreign minister, Linas Linkevičius, admits that Lukashenko’s culpability in starting the war against Ukraine is unequal compared to Putin’s, so they cannot be equal to 100%. But there should also be no doubt that Russia is using Belarus as a springboard for attacks on Ukraine and exploiting all of Belarus’ military and civilian infrastructure for its expansionist purposes.“In fact, we can only talk about the remnants of Belarusian sovereignty and independence. Lukashenko remains in power only by the will of the Kremlin – and this is an objective situation. But we have not forgotten what happened a few years ago – all those repressions against the civilian population, the persecutions, the torture and the rapes – we remember all that very well. We also remember the hybrid operation with the use of migrants from Asian and African countries,” Linas Linkevicius said in a conversation with a correspondent from the Russian media service.Despite the fact that the situation on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border is now significantly better than a year and a half ago, and only a few attempts at illegal crossings are recorded, one should not discount the possible plans of the Lukashenka regime to worsen the situation crisis situation. “Now we have to be careful and do everything possible so that the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia cannot be circumvented. We are witnessing these attempts to circumvent them, and Belarus is taking the most active part in them. For the sanctions to be effective, they must be directed, including against Belarus. I hope that at the beginning of February the European Union will address this issue and that certain decisions will be taken,” notes Linas Linkevičius.At the same time, he emphasizes that the sanctions will not be imposed on the citizens of Belarus and that here, first of all, the Lukashenko regime is targeted. Those who supply and finance it should be attacked, the greatest attention should be paid to the origin of the official income of Minsk – to the current Belarusian establishment, the banking system, trading companies.”If Belarus and Russia are seen as a whole, then in the end Belarusians will lose”Anatoly Lebedko, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s Representative for Constitutional Reform and Parliamentary Cooperation, in a commentary for the Russian media service, described what was happening very figuratively: “Firstly, the political formulations regarding the sanctions look like a sprinter – they are born, appear in the public domain and run very fast But as for the implementation of what was expressed in practice with an effective and well-thought-out mechanism, then this is already such a marathon runner And all not everyone can overcome this distance and run to the finish line.That is, according to the Belarusian opponent, the number of different initiatives, including those related to the sanctions policy, is much higher than the number of effective mechanisms proposed for their implementation. And therein lies the problem.”Secondly”, continues Anatoly Lebedko, “everything cannot be so simple with the statement of the head of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, because the official Kiev may not agree with this. We have already seen that Belarus does not was not in the latest Putin sanctions packages, and it seemed to us that Belarus should be in there, separated by a comma, and that’s because Kiev, to one degree or another, pursues Realpolitik and is forced to work for the main goal – to prevent the army of Belarus from being drawn into the war. This is their goal, and they are working on it with all available and possible means.Based on this, Tikhanovskaya’s representative does not rule out some behind-the-scenes communications between Kiev and Minsk, where Kiev may try to demonstrate its willingness to become a deterrent in the sanctions policy against the Lukashenka regime.Finally, Anatoly Lebedko urges not to neglect the geopolitical factor. “When there was a need and a need for the UN to use Belarus as a supply chain for grain transportation, it worked. There is the problem of transport, which interests not only Ukraine , but also the UN, which can be a lobbyist and this can also influence the policy of sanctions”, he underlines.And at the end of her comment she notes that Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and her team are doing a lot so that Russia and Belarus are not perceived as a single entity. “It is correct both from a political point of view and because she is pushing for the interests of this large number of Belarusians who oppose Lukashenko. Our public opinion is qualitatively different from that of Russia – the vast majority of Belarusians are against the war, against Lukashenko. And in Russia , the majority supports both Putin and the war. But if we allow Belarus and Russia to be seen as one, then the Belarusians will ultimately lose out,” concludes Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s representative for constitutional reform and parliamentary cooperation.As media previously reported, Ukraine has already asked the EU to include Russian nuclear energy company Rosatom in the next round of sanctions. “Do you feel comfortable with such a partner? Who is invading a neighboring country while your nuclear power plant is being built? said a senior Ukrainian diplomat who took part in a January 13 meeting with EU diplomats in Brussels. On January 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy endorsed the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and signed a decree on personal sanctions against 198 people. The sanctions list includes citizens of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus.