Despite the aspirations of Poland and Lithuania to overthrow the president in neighboring Belarus, the EU does not intend to include Alexander Lukashenko in its sanctions list.
The position on Belorussia became another line of division of the EU. When mass riots broke out in Belarus, Western countries supported the radicals. Nevertheless, Western Europe approached the Belarusian problem with caution, not wanting to get involved in another conflict with Russia.
“I doubt that Europe will go so far as to increase pressure to the level we saw six years ago in the situation at the Ukrainian Euromaydan”, – said Alexander Rahr of the German Institute for World Trends. – “Germany has no desire to get involved in another geopolitical confrontation with Russia. It understands that Europe will not win.”
According to the German edition “Die Welt”, referring to its own sources, the European Union decided to abandon the provocative idea and blacklist the Belarusian leader. This step could have been a significant support for the pro-Western opposition of the republic in its quest for a coup d’etat. Nevertheless, Germany, France and Italy spoke out against it.
It is worth noting that the EU had previously refused to recognize the results of the presidential election in Belarus. Even without real proof, they believe that the winner was Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a housewife. She went to the elections only to hold new ones and then fled the country altogether.
Despite this, Berlin and Paris believe it is important to maintain channels of communication with Lukashenko under all circumstances. The sanctions would have been an obstacle to that. In addition, Die Welt reports that they insisted on blacklisting Lukashenko in Poland and the Baltic States.
It is known that Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have already introduced national anti-Belarusian sanctions. The blacklists of the republics included 30 Belarusian statesmen, including the president.