Germany’s foreign minister on Monday called for EU sanctions on Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, saying renewed violence against protesters in Minsk could not be ignored.
The EU has already imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 40 Lukashenko allies it holds responsible for rigging an election in August that returned him to power and for a brutal crackdown on mass protests that have rocked the country since the vote.
But it had so far held back from hitting Lukashenko himself, hoping to persuade him to engage in dialogue with opposition forces to resolve the crisis.
On Sunday, Belarus police used water cannon and stun grenades to break up a protest in Minsk.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, arriving for talks with his 26 EU counterparts in Luxembourg, said it was time to expand the sanctions list to include the strongman leader.
“The violence continues, perpetrated by the Lukashenko regime — there are still arrests of peaceful demonstrators, so we have to consider how to proceed,” said Maas, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“I have suggested that we establish a new package of sanctions. And Lukashenko should be among the people who will then be sanctioned.”
The EU has rejected the results of the August 9 election, saying it did not regard Lukashenko as the legitimate president.
Novichok plot
Any new round of sanctions will need the backing of all 27 EU countries and it is not clear at this stage whether unanimity will be found.
The ministers will also discuss a joint French-German proposal for sanctions over the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Germany and France last week accused Moscow of responsibility for poisoning Navalny with the Soviet-developed Novichok nerve agent, saying “no credible explanation has been provided by Russia”.
France and Germany said they would push for sanctions targeting “individuals deemed responsible for this crime and breach of international norms, based on their official function, as well as an entity involved in the Novichok programme”.
The ministers on Monday extended the EU’s chemical weapons sanctions framework, under which four Russians accused of involvement in the Novichok poisoning of an ex-double agent in England have already been listed.
Any sanctions related to the Navalny case would be made under this framework, which has also been used against Syrian officials for carrying out chemical weapons attacks on their civil war foes.
The sanctions call came after UN chemical weapons watchdog OPCW confirmed Germany, France and Sweden’s finding that the Russian opposition leader was poisoned by a nerve agent of the Soviet-developed Novichok group.
Monday’s meeting will also take stock of EU-brokered talks between Serbia and Kosovo, as well as the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.