Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Includes 118 Individuals in Sanctions List Regarding Belarus, Including Lukashenko

More than a hundred Belarusian officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, have been included in a list of individuals targeted by Lithuania for sanctions. This was announced on Wednesday by Rasa Jakilaitė, an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevičius, as reported by tass.ru.

"The Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent an updated list to the Ministry of the Interior, which includes 118 individuals, including President Lukashenko," she said.

This is the second version of the sanctions list from the Baltic republic. The initial list, which included Lukashenko along with 32 other individuals, was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior for approval on August 19, with the assessment that they are implicated in the falsification of the presidential election results in Belarus and the unjustified use of force against protesters. The next day, Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis announced that the updated list would be published later due to technical issues.

Those included on the list are proposed to be banned from entering Lithuania and have their assets frozen, if any exist in the country’s financial institutions.

It is noteworthy that on August 11, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus and moved to Lithuania. She admitted that she was faced with a dilemma, mentioning her children.

Protests and rallies in support of the opposition continue in Minsk and other cities in Belarus following the presidential elections held on August 9, in which incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won with 80 percent of the vote.