Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions on 100 Belarus regime officials for what they did to impede democracy on the second anniversary of that nation’s presidential election.
The Belarusian people took to the streets after learning the Lukashenka regime reportedly stole the election, he said in an Aug. 8 news release. And they’ve sustained their pro-democracy movement for two years.
“On the second anniversary of the presidential election in Belarus, we commend the Belarusian people who showed up in record numbers to cast their ballots, exercise their rights and determine their own future,” Blinken said in the release.
Hundreds of thousands of people peacefully protested and demanded free and fair elections be held in a democratic transition, he said, the release reported. More than 1,200 political prisoners unjustly detained inside the country and countless ordinary Belarusian citizens."
Those peaceful calls for democracy were met with brute force and a crackdown by the Lukashenka regime, Blinken said in the release.
The U.S. took steps during the past two years against the regime, including expanded sanctions for human rights abuses and destabilizing behavior.
Presidential Proclamation 8015 resulted in visa restrictions on high-ranking regime members, such as the Ministry of Interior, State Security Committee (KGB), the Central Election Commission, the Prosecutor General’s Office, Central Office of the Investigative Committee, Ministry of Transport and Communication, Main Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK), the National State TV and Radio Company “Belteleradio,” the Second National Television Station and the Air Force and Air Defense Forces, the release reported.
Members of Parliament, judges, university administrators and security officials also were put under visa restriction, according to the release.
They have been implicated in coerced confessions, electoral fraud, torture, violent arrests of peaceful protestors and raids of members of the opposition, journalists and activists, the release reported.
