Dozens of judges, local officials, athletes and even journalists favorable to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko are among the nationals affected by these sanctions.
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No less than 159 deputies are among those targeted. Poland has imposed new sanctions against 365 Belarusians, the Polish Interior Ministry announced on Monday (May 29th). Warsaw has also banned trucks registered in Belarus and Russia from crossing the Polish-Belarusian border. The only road crossing point between the two countries will be “suspended sine die from June 1”according to a ministerial decree.
Targeted Belarusian personalities will be banned from entering Poland and the Schengen area, and their assets will be frozen, Poland said. Dozens of judges, local officials, athletes and even pro-Minsk journalists are targeted by the new sanctions. “These people promoted the Belarusian regime and participated in legitimizing and supporting the repressive policy of the Minsk authorities”explains an official press release.
Warsaw also sanctions “persons responsible for organizing illegal immigration to Poland and the Baltic States”, according to the Polish press release. Warsaw accuses Belarus, Russia’s main ally, of orchestrating the influx of migrants into Poland in 2021, and erected a steel wall along the border to deter irregular crossings.
According to the ministry, this wave of sanctions responds “to maintain the draconian verdict in the Andrzej Poczobut case”, a Polish-Belarusian journalist sentenced to eight years in prison for criticizing the regime of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. On Friday, a Belarusian court rejected his appeal and upheld his sentence.