June 20, Council of EU Foreign Ministers approved the introduction of economic sanctions on three firms controlled by businessman Vladimir Peftiev, close to the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. As previously stated in the Council of EU ministers, this move is designed to "punish the Belarusian leader for the arrests of opposition activists and journalists, without hurting the economy."
Thus, the restrictions have been imposed on the companies Beltechexport, Beltelecom (according to other sources — BT Telecommunications) and Sport-Pari. The decision was taken «in order to strengthen the financial pressure on the Belarusian authorities to make them stop repression against the opposition,» said the EU Council.
«We have approved an embargo on arms sales and frozen the assets of the firms, financing Lukashenko. He must choose a path: toward the democracy or the Hague,» wrote the Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in the social network Twitter.
In addition, European ministers decided to expand the list of banned Belarusian officials in the European Union. There have been no reports on the new names listed.
The Presidential Sports Club is a co-founder of Sport-Pari, headed by the son of Alexander Lukashenko, Dmitri.
The company BT Telecommunications is a general sponsor of the Presidential Sports Club of Dmitri Lukashenko, said «Nasha Niva.» The company is known for its proposal to set up a special computer cash register system to control information about cash flows in Belarus arcades jointly with the American company GTECH.
