Sanctions pressure on the regime and its representatives
In conjunction with the above-mentioned measures, the Cabinet considers sanctions as one of the components of the struggle against the regime. Since the first sanctions were introduced, it has become clear that the sanctions policy against the regime requires close attention and active participation on the part of the Belarusians themselves. The introduced sanctions, as well as those still planned, can be really effective only if the Belarusans themselves help to direct them to the corresponding purposes and control their implementation. For this reason, power transit representative Pavel Latushko, his Office and the NAM team, with the participation of the Office for the Restoration of Law and Order, worked hard to ensure that the sanctions were a truly painful and effective blow to the regime's resources, reducing its power to direct new and new crimes.
During the 6 months of the Cabinet's existence, Pavel Latushko, the representative for the transit of power, has regularly submitted proposals prepared by his Representative Office for improving sanctions pressure and expanding the sanctions lists both to EU supranational bodies and to the governments of democratic countries. In the last three months alone, 23 such proposals with justification have been sent to the authorized bodies of the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, Austria, Ukraine and so on. Similar proposals were transmitted during numerous official meetings and foreign visits of Pavel Latushko and other representatives of the Cabinet with ambassadors and representatives of the diplomatic corps of democratic countries. The meetings of the head and representatives of the Cabinet with the US Assistant Secretary of State Robin Dunnigan, meetings of the foreign affairs representative Valery Kovalevsky with the head of the US Department of State's sanctions coordination office Jim S. O'Brien, meetings of Pavel Latushko with Paul Massaro, senior policy advisor to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Markéta Adamová, head of the lower house of the Czech parliament.
It is important to note that during the past period, the position on the need to harmonize sanctions against Russia and Belarus was formed and substantiated in the Cabinet, which on behalf of the head of the Cabinet was sent to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, responsible for EU foreign policy Josep Borrel and the President of the European Council Charles Michel. This position was also transmitted to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The Office of the Transit of Power and the NAM team also visited Brussels to inform the relevant agencies about ways to circumvent sanctions by the Lukashenko regime, to provide recommendations on how to prevent such attempts, and to prove the need to harmonize sanctions against Russia and Belarus.
The office on the transit of power also actively worked on the introduction of personal sanctions against representatives of the regime. Together with the NAM team, Bypol, and the Belarusian Foundation for Sports Solidarity, proposals were prepared with justifications for personal sanctions against 340 people who serve the regime. Such lists included representatives of the top military and political leadership who contributed to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, judges who handed down illegal sentences, propagandists who incited hatred and spread false information, members of the so-called National Assembly of Belarus who adopted discriminatory laws and legislative amendments, sports functionaries who persecuted athletes, etc.
In particular, a number of decisions of sanctions against representatives of Lukashenko's regime have already been taken on the basis of the proposals sent during this time. Thus, national sanctions against 12 figures of the regime were imposed by Poland. Canada has imposed sanctions against 22 individuals and 16 companies from Belarus during a visit of Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya to Ottawa. New Zealand has expanded its sanctions list. Taiwan has expanded the list of high-tech products banned for export to Belarus. The U.S. added 25 people to its list of personal sanctions and imposed sanctions on several companies. Ukraine imposed sanctions against 23 Belarusian enterprises.
An important part of the work outlined above was carried out by the Office for the Restoration of Law and Order, which carries out comprehensive verification of representatives of the regime to include them in the sanctions lists of democratic countries. Over the past period, 60 officials have been verified in this way.
The Department of National Security, which, according to its profile, prepared proposals to impose sanctions against cooperation between the military-industrial complexes of Belarus and Russia, involved in the aggression against Ukraine, also joined the work to increase the sanctions pressure. The transit authority sent a list of 13 enterprises of the military-industrial complex of Belarus to the authorized bodies of the EU, the United States, Sweden, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
A new package of sanctions against Belarus by the European Union in connection with the complicity of the Lukashenko regime in Russia's aggression against Ukraine is being prepared. This package is based on the position of the Cabinet and the proposals with the justification of the Representation for the Cabinet for the harmonization of the sanctions policy against Russia and the Lukashenko regime. In addition, according to the proposal of the Representation for the Transit of Power, the new package of sanctions provides for personal sanctions against 22 representatives of the military and political leadership of the regime.
Bringing representatives of the regime to justice
The Cabinet considers it fundamental not only to free Belarus from the regime, but also to bring to justice its representatives, who unleashed terror and repression on an unprecedented scale against the Belarusian people. As early as August 2020, it was of fundamental importance for the Belarusians to fix all the crimes that had been committed against the protesters. The Cabinet united the efforts of Pavel Latushko and Alexander Azarov in this matter, so that as a result of systematic systematic work, all the accumulated material, evidence, victims' attempts to obtain justice and measures of human rights defenders gave proper results: they forced the criminals to face a fair trial. At the moment, with the active assistance of Pavel Latushko and his team, criminal cases have been initiated against the regime's accomplices on behalf of more than 50 victims within the universal jurisdiction. A conference in Warsaw was held by the Cabinet, the NAM team, with the participation of a representative for the restoration of law and order, at which an agreement was reached on cooperation with representatives of the human rights sector and the JusticeHub initiative (Lithuania). To coordinate work in this direction, the Representative Office on the Cabinet prepared and sent out a memo by the People's Embassy of Belarus, which included tools for finding victims, human rights defenders and lawyers, promotion of the issue in the local media, etc. To popularize the topic and highlight the problematic moments that victims of torture have to face during the consideration of their cases within the universal jurisdiction, Pavel Latushko's team shot and presented a documentary film "Belarusian Process".
In its turn, the Office for the Restoration of the Rule of Law regularly assists the mission of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to collect evidence of human rights violations in Belarus: searching for witnesses and victims and providing necessary information.
Alexander Azarov's representation continues to collect evidence of the crimes of Lukashenka's regime. The accumulated material was processed and formed the basis of 12 investigative videos published in the past period. The same material was used by the representative for the transit of power to justify the need for governments of democratic countries to recognize the KGB and the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption as terrorist organizations. Numerous efforts and appeals on this subject were one of the reasons for the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania to pass a resolution describing these criminal organizations and urging the president and government of Lithuania to declare these organizations terrorist. After appeals of the representative for the transit of power and meetings with high-ranking Czech officials, the Czech parliament instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare and make a recommendation to the prime minister that the KGB and the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption be recognized as terrorist organizations in the Czech Republic. A similar appeal was sent to deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
Tribunal
All efforts of the Cabinet to convey to the civilized world the need for effective prosecution of representatives of the Lukashenko regime should be finalized by the International Tribunal for Lukashenko and his accomplices. In order to bring the case to this global level, the Cabinet prepared a substantiation of the possibility of prosecuting representatives of the Lukashenko regime for violations of the 1984 Convention against Torture, which was submitted to the Foreign Ministries of Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the USA, Sweden and Canada. The resolutions adopted in January 2023 by the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe reflect the proposals of the Cabinet to extend the jurisdiction of the future tribunal to the top military and political leadership of Alexander Lukashenko's regime, including the dictator himself, for their complicity in the aggression against Ukraine.
Transition and the new Belarus
The Cabinet, in accordance with its objectives, assumes responsibility for state governance during the transition period, during which the foundations of a new Belarus — a democratic sovereign state with a developed, socially oriented economy — will be laid. To this end, the Representative Office for the Transition has developed approaches to replace ineffective regime officials — and primarily those officials who have committed crimes against Belarusians — with effective, well-educated managers who, based on the studied experience of other countries, will be able to minimize the social and economic disruption inherent in societies and economies in transition. In order to train the necessary qualified personnel, the Cabinet, in particular, Deputy of the Cabinet Yuri Gubarevich, developed and launched the project "Personnel Reserve for the New Belarus". So far 170 applications for training under the project have been processed, 40% of which have been submitted by people in Belarus and 17% by those working in the public sector. It should be noted that 100% of the applicants have higher education. A plan was formed for a pilot educational program, which will include training in communication and conflictology, public administration, crisis management.
Comments