Belarusian Foreign Ministry charges US

The Foreign Ministry of Belarus has commented extension of the sanctions against Belarusian enterprises by the US.

“By their actions the US demonstrated that steps taken by them are aimed against common Belarusian citizens and touch upon interests of workers of enterprises on the blacklist,” told the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Andrei Papou, commenting on expanding the economic sanctions against Belneftekhim concern.

As we have informed, on May 15 the US Treasury published another addition to sanctions against Belneftekhim imposed in November 2007. Sanctions have been imposed on three companies linked to Belneftekhim Concern, the country's largest petrochemical firm, which Washington says is controlled by Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The new sanctions cover Lakokraska OAO, Polotsk Steklovolokno OAO, and the Belarusian Oil Trade House.

A. Papou has noted that the actions of the US “do not represent anything new” and are “a concretization of targets of “the restrictive measures announced by the US earlier”.

“It is especially noticeable that that step has been done by the US side right after the Belarusian president unambiguously stated his open and honest position in favour of equitable and mutually respectful dialogue with the aim of normalization of Belarusian-American relations,” A. Papou underlined.