The European Union agreed on Monday to extend sanctions against Belarus, imposing asset freezes on an arms tycoon and three companies linked to him and President Alexander Lukashenko, EU diplomats said. Several other people will also face EU sanctions, adding to a list of more than 150 Minsk officials targeted by the EU as it tries to force Lukashenko to end a crackdown on anti-government opposition.
Belarus has come under increased international scrutiny after a disputed election in December that reinstated Lukashenko, and because of a deepening economic crisis. Monday's decision made by EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg is the first time the bloc has targeted Belarussian companies, after overcoming past opposition by some of the bloc's governments with commercial links to the ex-Soviet state.
"We are of course focusing on the situation in Greece, but Belarus might be even worse, in terms of the financial situation," Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said as he entered a meeting with his counterparts in Luxembourg. Diplomats said the arms tycoon targeted on Monday was Vladimir Peftiyev, a 54-year-old chief of Beltechexport, the main exporter of Belarussian arms and related equipment such as targeting systems for Russian tanks.
Forbes magazine listed him in 2010 as the richest man in Belarus, putting his worth at $1 billion. Belarus has been struggling for months to pull out of a currency crisis - largely fuelled by Lukashenko's populist economic policies - which has led to a 36 percent devaluation against the dollar.
The Vienna-based Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said last week in a special report that Lukashenko's government systematically uses fear, harassment, torture and blackmail to clamp down on its people.