As a powerful actor on the international arena, the United States actively uses its sanctions mechanism against foreign states, businesses, and officials. It regularly introduces and extends both thematic (counter-terrorism sanctions, cyber-related sanctions, rough diamond trade control, global Magnitsky sanctions) and country-specific (including Belarus, Burundi, Cuba, North Korea, Syria) sanctions.
The procedures for adopting and implementing sanctions are distinct. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department that administers and enforces sanctions programmes. The sanctions programmes that OFAC controls represent the implementation of multiple legal authorities. Some of these authorities are in the form of executive orders issued by the president, others are public laws (statutes) passed by Congress, following the standard legislative procedure. These authorities are further codified by OFAC in its regulations, which are published in the Code of Federal Regulations. Modifications to these regulations are posted in the Federal Register.
The United States sanctions on Belarus stem from two key acts: the Executive Order 13405 of 2006 and the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 (as amended in 2006 and 2011).
Executive Order 13405 stipulates that all property and interests in property of the following persons must be blocked:
- all persons listed in the Annex to the order (10 individuals at the time of the order’s adoption, including Lukashenko);
-persons who have participated in actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in Belarus;
-persons responsible for human rights abuses related to political repression in Belarus;
-senior-level officials, their family members, or people closely linked to such officials who are responsible for public corruption related to Belarus;
-persons who have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, political repression; and
-legal persons owned, controlled, acting for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person listed in the order.
The Belarus Democracy Act is a United States’ statute that has been transformed and amended as new violations of human rights in Belarus emerged. Originally adopted in 2004, it was amended in 2006 and 2011. The attempt to introduce amendments to the act in 2015 failed. Before the events of 2020, the act already stipulated a framework that would allow the United States to adopt both targeted and broad sanctions, including:
-travel bans for Belarusian senior leadership;
-freezing of individual or company funds affiliated with Belarusian senior leadership;
-prohibition on providing credit guarantees, insurance, financing, or other similar financial assistance to the Belarusian government; and
-prohibition on using the funds of the Trade and Development Agency for the activities of the agency in or for Belarus.
The conditions for the lifting of sanctions under the act included:
-release of individuals in Belarus who have been jailed based on political or religious beliefs or expression;
-withdrawal of politically motivated legal charges against all opposition activists and independent journalists in Belarus;
-a full account of the disappearances of opposition leaders and journalists in Belarus, including Yury Zakharenko, Viktar Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovskiy, and Dmitriy Zavadskiy, and the prosecution of those individuals who are in any way responsible for their disappearances;
-cessation of all forms of harassment and repression against independent media, independent trade unions, nongovernmental organisations, youth groups, religious organisations (including their leadership and members), and the political opposition in Belarus;
-prosecution of senior leadership of the Government of Belarus responsible for the administration of fraudulent elections and violations of human rights;
-a full account of the embezzlement of state assets by senior leadership of the Government of Belarus, their family members, and other associates; and
-holding of free, fair, and transparent presidential and parliamentary elections in Belarus consistent with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) standards and under the supervision of OSCE observers and independent domestic observers.
Sixteen individuals and nine state-controlled enterprises were subjected to sanctions before the 2020 crisis.
As the situation in Belarus continues to deteriorate, new names have been added to the sanctions list. Eight state officials associated with human rights abuses and undermining democratic processes have been designated in October 2020. More targets have been added to the sanctions list in December 2020 and June 2021, now comprising 41 individuals, 9 enterprises, and 8 collective bodies (Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus on Elections and Holding Republican Referenda (Belarusian CEC); Directorate of Internal Affairs of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee (Brest UVD); Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; KGB Alpha; Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK); Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Minsk City Executive Committee (Minsk GUVD); Minsk Special Purpose Police Unit (Minsk OMON); and State Security Committee), as well as the Akrestsina Detention Center in Minsk. Still others have been targeted by visa restrictions.
There is also a political will to push for more sanctions. The Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act of 2020 was signed into law by the president in December 2020. In addition to the aims pursued by the current version of the Belarus Democracy Act, it calls to widen and tighten the sanctions grip. The act seeks to expand the categories of persons targeted by sanctions by specifically adding:
-members of the Central Election Commission of Belarus or people assisting the Commission;
-members of any branch of the security or law enforcement services of Belarus, including the KGB, Interior Ministry, and OMON special police unit who participated in political repression;
-government officials, including at the Information Ministry, responsible for the crackdown on independent media, including revoking the accreditation of journalists, disrupting Internet access, and restricting online content;
-officials of the so-called ‘Union State’ between Russia and Belarus (regardless of nationality); and
-Russian individuals who have significantly participated in the crackdown on independent press or human rights abuses related to political repression in Belarus, including Russian propagandists sent to replace local employees at Belarusian state media outlets.
Beyond reauthorising sanctions for those complicit in the crackdown on fundamental freedoms of Belarusians by Lukashenko during and after 9 August 2020, the act authorises assistance measures to, among other things, counter internet censorship; support the work of women activists; support political refugees fleeing Belarus; support the investigating of the human rights abuses in Belarus; and support the public health response to COVID-19.
On August 9, 2021, the United States significantly expanded its sanctions policy against the Belarusian de facto authorities on the eve of the anniversary of the Belarusian protests start. Thus, the corresponding decree of President Joe Biden extends sanctions to 23 individuals and 21 organizations. Energy, construction, transport and tobacco companies, including the largest enterprises “Belaruskali” and “Belneftegaz”, as well as the company “New Oil Company Vostok” LLC, registered in the Russian Federation, fell under the sanctions regime. The Investigative Committee of Belarus, as well as the National Olympic Committee of Belarus, should also be mentioned separately in this list. A number of individuals who are associated (or were previously associated) with the above-mentioned companies and enterprises, members of parliament (Gennady Davydko and Oleg Gaidukevich), as well as senior employees of many law enforcement agencies (for example, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Dmitry Gora and his deputies; KGB officers; the administration of the temporary detention center and the center for the isolation of offenders on Akrestina Street) also fell under the restrictions.
On December 2, 2021 the United States imposed one more package of sanctions against 20 individuals, 12 legal entities and even 3 aircraft. The package includes the leadership of the State Border Committee, including chairman Dmitry Lappo; Dmitry Lukashenko, son of A. Lukashenko and head of the “President’s Sports Club”; Dmitry Baskov, member of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly, suspected of killing a peaceful protester; a number of employees of the GUBOPiK, including the head of the department Andrey Parshin; heads of several other departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The sanctions also included such industrial objects as the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), “Beltechexport”, “Agat Electromechanical Plant”, “Slavkali” (including an aircraft and a helicopter registered at Slavkali) and many other enterprises; a subsidiary trading enterprise of BPC in Ukraine “Agrorozkvit”, the airline Transaviaexport as well as the public association “President’s Sports Club” and one travel company. Unlike the sanctions of the European Union, the national air carrier Belavia was not included in the US sanctions list. In addition to targeted sanctions, the US Treasury Department has banned its citizens from transactions with new debt obligations of Belarus, issued after the imposition of sanctions for a period of more than 90 days.
On December 10, the US Secretary of State Enthony Blinken, in his statement, announced the introduction of personal sanctions against the heads of the Akrestina Detention Center Igor Kenyukh and Yevgeniy Shepetko “for their involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the torture and/or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees in the aftermath of the fraudulent August 9, 2020 presidential election”.