Source: EU will suspend penalties against Belarus for four months

The EU will remove penalties relative to Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, four months, writes Reuters citing unnamed diplomatic sources.
As they say, opinion on the suspension of restrictive measures the EU has the opportunity to be taken for holding talks in Minsk on resolving the situation in Ukraine and the release of political prisoners in the last month of summer of the current year, reports news Agency.
"depending on the actions of Lukashenko in the presidential election process, the decision on withdrawal of the punishment of four months will be made on the first day of the week ", ? leads RIA "Novosti" the words of one of the sources Reuters. According to diplomats, the punishment will be stopped for some time about 140 persons from the end of October until the end of February. Anyway, the EU will leave before the punishment, which is updated each October for the past five years. The arms embargo will remain in force, reports the Agency. In the middle of September Reuters citing sources also reported that Brussels wants to stop for some time a number of sanctions concerning the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Remember that at the end of the summer, Lukashenko said that Minsk and Esnecially to understand one another. Before that, the head of Belarus has pardoned a number of prisoners of the opposition, whom the West considered political prisoners. For example, was released ex-candidate for the position of head of state of Belarus Nikolay Statkevich. The head of EU diplomacy Federica Mogherini and Commissioner for neighbourhood policy Johannes Hahn said that the pardon of the opposition activists has become a " welcome step forward ". Punishment against Belarus were introduced almost 10 years ago and in October 2014 extended to 31 October 2015, the EU was associated with significant allegations of human rights violations in the country and in compliance with the rule of law and democracy. Penalties include embargoes on arms and equipment for the police organisation and the freezing of assets and ban on entry into the EU persons, which the European Union considers responsible for human rights violations. In addition, the frozen assets of some legal entities. In early August, the EU has excluded 24 people from the list of individual punishment.


sections: Politics