Has Peftsieu found loophole in EU sanctions?

The European Union can create a dangerous precedent which would result in lifting sanctions against Lukashenka’s key henchmen.

As charter97.org website was informed by a source in diplomatic circles, today the Belarusian officials and businessmen who had been affected by the EU sanctions are trying to carry out an operation which aim is crossing them out of the EU black list.

“The trial balloon” in the search of a loophole in the bureaucratic procedures of the European Union was the former deputy editor-in-chief of “Sovetskaya Belorussia” newspaper Hanna Shadryna (Anna Shadrina), who is trying to exclude her name from the EU black list through court action, not without the help of the head of Beltechexport, Uladzimir Peftsieu (Vladimir Peftiev), an oligarch from Lukashenka’s retinue.

Officially, she has quitted the of Lukashenka’s administration’s mouthpiece in the run-up to the presidential election, and she considers herself not involved in the rigging the election results and crackdown on the civil society of Belarus.

Now the leadership of the EU demands from the heads of diplomatic missions in Minsk concrete proofs of the “wronged” journalist’s guilt.

“The report has been prepared by us. It was stated in it that Shadryna had not apologized for her articles in “Sovetskaya Belorussia” concerning oppositional presidential candidates and pro-democracy activists. And there were not so many articles written by her, however, she was an editor of other defamatory materials about opposition on the pages of “Sovetskaya Belorussia”, the mouthpiece of Lukashenka’s administration.” An answer was received from Brussels, that the report does not contain enough “proofs of Shadryna’s guilt”, and we were ordered to write a report once again, for today three reports have been prepared already. According to the information we have, officials-Eurocrats from Roma, Lisbon, Riga and some other capitals are lobbying the investigation with support of their governments. Ambassadors in Minsk, who know the situation very well, are under the pressure of their Foreign Ministries,” the source informed.

By the way, there has been a precedent in the EU, when the wife of the former president of Cote d’Ivoire Laurent Gbagbo was acquitted by court and ban on her entering the EU was lifted. That’s how officials explain their “fault-finding”.

“Brussels believe that it is dangerous for the reputation of the EU. But the problem is that Peftsieu goes next after Shadryna. He has already threatened to file a lawsuit. The EU sanctions really hinder this Lukashenka’s financier. This person experiences losses, his business-contacts have become more difficult. Shadryna’s case is a test for them. The Belarusian KGB and Peftsieu are standing behind her back.

If Brussels continues to demand some “evidence of guilt”, Lukashenka could be justified and freed from charges as well. We do not have in our hands the texts of Lukashenka’s orders: to abduct, murder, arrest people, to rig the election results. So does that mean he is not guilty?” the source asks.