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Sanctions against Belarus are unjustified and unacceptable, says CSTO secretary general

The West's sanctions against Belarus are unjustified and unacceptable and entry bans for citizens of other countries are an anachronism, Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), said Thursday in Minsk, speaking during a meeting of a CSTO council for dealing with emergencies.

Mr. Bordzyuzha stressed that the policy of sanctions would never be successful and promised that other CSTO member states would support Belarus, according to the government's news agency BelTA.

The European Union has blacklisted 243 Belarusian citizens and 32 economic entities for their role in human rights violations in Belarus and support of the Lukashenka regime. The EU's Political and Security Committee decided on August 10 that new restrictive measures against the Belarusian government should be adopted before October 31. The decision was a response to the expulsion of the Swedish embassy staff from Minsk.

Belarus is also targeted by US sanctions, most notably, a freeze on the assets of state petrochemical conglomerate Belnaftakhim and a ban on any business dealings with the conglomerate and its subsidiaries. //BelaPAN