The UK government has introduced new sanctions against Belarus, targeting exports and internet propaganda, over Minsk’s continued support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Legislation laid in the House of Commons on Thursday put the package of measures, dubbed “Belarus II”, into immediate effect. They include an import ban on gold, cement, wood and rubber from Belarus, which are sources of revenue for the regime.
Belarus has already been sanctioned by the EU and the UK for its role in aiding Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, and these have dealt a significant blow to the Belarusian economy.
However, differences between the sanctions imposed on Moscow and those against Minsk have allowed some trade to continue with Russia via Belarus.
The sanctions imposed on Thursday aim to close some of those loopholes by aligning sanctions against the two countries more closely, including by introducing further restrictions on Belarus’s access to UK financial markets.
It followed the UK levying an initial round of sanctions against the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko in February last year in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
An additional wave of sanctions introduced last July, worth about £60mn to the Belarusian regime, banned the export of oil refining goods, advanced technology components and luxury goods from the UK to Belarus, and blocked imports to the UK of Belarusian iron and steel.
Lukashenko himself has been subject to a travel ban and asset freeze since 2020 when he became the first national leader the UK targeted with personal sanctions.
The embargoes on Belarus’s wood, cement and rubber exports align the UK with EU sanctions against Minsk in an effort to further restrict the regime’s access to foreign exchange income.
The EU has sought for six months to implement similar anti-circumvention measures against Minsk but the 27 member states have so far failed to reach agreement because of opposition from Lithuania to a proposed derogation for Belarusian fertiliser exports that some other EU members say is necessary for farmers in third countries. Belarus is one of the world’s largest producers of potash fertilisers.
Additional reporting by Raphael Minder in Warsaw