Latvia finds it necessary to slap sanctions on Belarusian officials linked to the clampdown on protesters and "election fraud," the foreign minister said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) Latvia finds it necessary to slap sanctions on Belarusian officials linked to the clampdown on protesters and "election fraud," the foreign minister said on Thursday.
Along with the US, the EU has not ruled out introducing sanctions on the country to hold its authorities responsible for "violence, unjustified arrests, and falsification of election results." The bloc's foreign ministers will discuss Belarus in a video conference on Friday, following Poland's call for an extraordinary summit on the situation. Lithuania and Germany have already thrown support behind the sanctions.
"As violence against peaceful protests in #Belarus continues and there is a lack of political dialogue, Latvia supports the need to introduce individual sanctions against Belarusian officials responsible for crackdown of protests and election fraud," Edgars Rinkevics wrote on Twitter.
Unsanctioned mass protests have been ongoing in Belarus since Sunday evening, when the first election results showed incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko secure his sixth term with over 80 percent of the vote, and the opposition challenged the outcome.
The Belarusian Investigative Committee said on Thursday that professional instigators are coordinating the unrest by managing the crowd and urging people to act.
