OFAC - Belarus G/Ls Steel & Aviation

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing

Belarus General License 8 "Authorizing the Wind Down of Transactions Involving Joint Stock Company Byelorussian Steel Works Management Company of Holding Byelorussian Metallurgical Company" and

Belarus General License 9 "Authorizing Transactions Related to Civil Aviation Safety or the Wind Down of Transactions Involving Open Joint Stock Company Belavia Belarusian Airlines".

Additionally, the SDN list has recently been updated. 

including:

BEL-KAP-STEEL LLC, Miami, FL

BELAVIA BELARUSIAN AIRLINES

MINSK CIVIL AVIATION PLANT 407

and a Jet Aircraft

This comes on the heels of the third anniversary of the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential election, and constitute significant measures against entities and individuals supporting Belarusian President Lukashenka's regime.

“Today, we are hitting where it hurts. We are taking action against the enterprises and officials that form the financial backbone of Lukashenka's authoritarian regime,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury, Brian Nelson.

The most notable among these is the Open Joint Stock Company Belavia Belarusian Airlines, the nation's main airline. Its access to EU airspace and airports had already been revoked by the EU in the wake of the controversial redirection of a Ryanair flight in May 2021, intended to detain a political dissident. The U.S. action follows the EU's earlier designation of BELAVIA in December 2021.

Additionally, in a bid to clamp down on Lukashenka's monetary channels, the Treasury is targeting U.S.-designated Belarusian businessman Aliaksey Ivanavich Aleksin, known to be one of Lukashenka’s “wallets”. His family members, who recently inherited his business empire, are also now under U.S. sanctions. Their businesses dominate a significant portion of Belarus's tobacco and transportation industries.

In tandem with these actions, the State Department is imposing visa restrictions on 101 regime officials for their role in undermining Belarus's democratic processes. This includes officials who have been involved in the suppression of free expression on social media.

Another significant measure targets the Department of Financial Investigations of The State Control Committee of the Republic of Belarus, which has been complicit in cracking down on independent media outlets and violating human rights.