Today, April 19, Sviatlana Tsikhanovskaya had a meeting with the US Ambassador to Belarus Julie Fisher. Ms. Fisher informed Ms. Tsikhanouskaya that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is renewing sanctions against nine Belarusian state enterprises. In 45 days, cooperation with these enterprises must be stopped.
Sanctions are imposed because of the systematic violation of human rights in Belarus. The United States calls on Lukashenka's regime to immediately release all political prisoners.
Sanctions had been lifted before, but in March 2021 the United States announced that the country would re-launch them, and the regime could avoid that if it freed political prisoners and engaged in dialogue with the people. Lukashenka's regime responded that there are no political prisoners in Belarus.
Julie Fisher will be in Vilnius till the end of the week.
