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Microsanctions for Marcovillains

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Microsanctions for Marcovillains
Iryna Khalip

Real sanctions can only be economic.

Let's review the terms immediately: these are not sanctions on Lukashenka's regime the world is talking about. This is a public condemnation, a board of shame, a court in the red corner club of the dorm. These are not sanctions.

Let us remember the character of the first ten sanctions lists, Natalia Petkevich. As deputy head of the Administration, she was on the very first list of 2006, when the post-election protests were brutally dispersed, and presidential candidate Aliaksandr Kazulin went to jail. At that time, the United States (the European Union later joined) imposed sanctions, and Natalia Petkevich found herself in the small company of two Lukashenka (father and son), Sheiman, Paulichenka and Yermoshyna. There were also ministers of Internal Affairs and a propagandist. Has it changed anything in Petkevich's life? No.

She used to go to the USA (any Belarusian official, any chastener from the sanctions list, who wants to walk around Broadway, should only receive an invitation from the Belarusian office in the UN, and this will be considered not a trip to the USA, but a trip to the UN. No sanctions wok in this case). Of course, Petkevich complained to journalists that at first she was locked up in a room for several hours along with African passengers who had problems with documents. But then she is still allowed into the U.S., unlike many of her fellow prisoners in the room.

Now, there is a challenge for intellectuals. Given: in 2015 Petkevich was excluded from the European sanctions list, but she still was on the American list. Question: where does Natalia Petkevich live now? The answer "Drazdy" is wrong. The right answer is New York. Yes, she married the representative of Belarus to the UN Valentsin Rybakou. And all sanctions in the world were helpless.

In fact, I am not too concerned about Petkevich's place of residence. I cited this story as an example to make it clear to everyone: visa restrictions are not sanctions, no matter how the European Union calls them. Yes, they mean the ban on entry and the assets freeze. And now show me a riot policeman with assets in Europe. However, riot policemen will not be added to this list. They don't officially introduce themselves and don't show their IDs before they start beating people. In courts, testifying against the Belarusians; they introduce themselves as Ivanov. And even if cyber partisans get the full list of personnel of Minsk and regional riot police, the international community will not even look at this list, as for the civilized world, the data were obtained illegally. Unless the riot police commander is a sanctioned position. But take a close look at Balaba: he will not go to Europe even after the court's verdict, but rather hide in the basement and entrench himself. And all the numerous chasteners in black and olive are invisible, unlike the judges and prosecutors. They have always avoided even visa restrictions.

By the way, now it's time to mention judges and prosecutors. Mikalai Statkevich served five years after the elections of 2010. Do you think Judge Lyudmila Hrachova, who passed this sentence, is on any sanctions list? She isn't. Like all judges who sent Decembrists to colonies and prisons in 2011, as well as prosecutors, who demanded real terms, as well as KGB and investigators, who made false accusations. All these people are now as innocent as babies. Well, their names were indeed on the ban lists of Europe and the U.S.for a couple of years. However, they were carefully removed from the list: someone changed a job and, therefore, was no longer responsible for the crimes committed before; someone retired and undoubtedly got the right to buy a house somewhere on the Riga Seaside and breathe the air in a pine forest without even thinking about those he once imprisoned. So let's be honest: a temporary ban on entry is anything but sanctions.

Real sanctions can only be of economic nature (sectoral ones). They should not be imposed on some enterprises owned by the state or "purses" of Lukashenka but against industries. And let those who today are against economic sanctions keep silent, arguing that the Belarusian people will suffer. Real economic sanctions cannot damage people. They can only destroy the regime. And those who speak out against sanctions are either just uneducated or even worse - idiots, useful for the regime.

First, the Belarusian people have been suffering for a quarter of a century, and if one month is the price for these sufferings to finally end, let it be. One month of economic sanctions is enough for the regime to collapse. As soon as the regime owns no money to pay wages and all kinds of bonuses to the chasteners, it will die in peace somewhere in the corner among the dirty rags, and the chasteners will run away to be hired by Wagner PMC (if they manage, of course). Second, a half-dead economy will still have to endure reforms that will be painful. It is the only way. Non-imposition of sanctions under the pretext of concern about ordinary people working at state enterprises means to keep decaying kolkhozes and factories producing to stock in the agonizing state. It also means the support of corruption, a giant staff of ideologists and chasteners, the contractual system and the parasite decree. Third, sanctions, however paradoxical it may sound, will help the country preserve its property. Not a single Russian oligarch we were constantly intimidated with by people who said that Lukashenka had to negotiate, as he was the guarantor of independence, will not be interested in buying a sanctioned enterprise. These sanctions will apply to him with and all his assets. Who would need Belaruskali if the world imposed sanctions on the entire Belarusian potash industry? Nobody. The regime will collapse in a month, and the property will remain in the country, and the workers on strike will no longer be jailed. And it will be a short path to fair elections. Flags will take their place - above every state building. Political prisoners will be at large. Going for an evening walk, we will not leave the keys and food for a cat to our neighbours. We will know for sure that we can return home.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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