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European sanctions against Lukashenko for the kidnapped blogger

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BRUSSELS – The world moves against the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko. And Putin’s Russia immediately comes to his defense. The de facto kidnapping of the journalist Roman Protasevich has become a gigantic international case. With the European Union which has ordered new sanctions against Minsk, with the United States defining the story as shocking and the United Nations ready to launch an investigation.

But precisely, while the whole Western world is taking sides against Lukashenko and his undemocratic sheriff’s methods, Russia stands by him. First he is defended by the powerful Foreign Minister Lavrov who defines Minsk’s approach to requests for clarification as “reasonable”, and then the Kremlin makes it known that he will be received by Putin in Sochi. Just to make it clear what the playing field is and that if there was an operation to unseat the Belarusian president, Moscow would know which side to stand on.

Yesterday, however, the EU followed a clear line. The ambassador of Minsk to the EU was summoned by the secretary general of the European External Action Service, Stefano Sannino. And almost all national diplomacies have moved in the same direction.

At the European Council, then, the 27 declared themselves in favor of new sanctions. As High Representative Josep Borrell explained, “there cannot be anything but consequences”. The measures, then, will involve the extension of those “ad personam” (for a large group of executives and politicians) already confirmed at the beginning of the year and the block – as proposed by the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen – of aid 3 billion until Belarus proves that it has embarked on the path of democracy. In Brussels it is ready to block the airspace for civil flights. Solution advocated by many, but whose practicability is still to be verified: many routes from Europe to the east pass over the sky of Minsk, changing them could be complicated or expensive for airlines.

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Europe cannot do much more at the moment. In particular, attempts will be made to avoid hitting the population. It should also be borne in mind that Belarus’s commercial turnover with the EU is not very high: 20 percent of the total. The one with Russia instead exceeds 50 per cent. Another element that makes relations between Moscow and Minsk well understood.

The tension yesterday in Brussels was very high. The security measures around the Justus Lipsius Building, where the Council meets, have been multiplied. And the meeting of the heads of state and government took place with a non-ordinary procedure: everyone had to leave their cell phones outside the room. Evidently the suspicion or simply the fear of being intercepted after what happened, has reached the highest peaks. And perhaps it is no coincidence that in addition to the harsh comments of all the community leaders from Draghi to Merkel, from the president of the European council Michel to the president of the Sassoli Parliament, NATO also intervened. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke of a “serious and dangerous accident”, calling for an international investigation. And today the ambassadors of the member countries of the Atlantic Pact will meet to assess the situation.

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