Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating 11 entities and seven individuals pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14038 and one individual pursuant to E.O. 14024. This action increases the pressure on Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s authoritarian regime for its suppression of Belarus’s democratic civil society, financial enrichment of the Lukashenka family, and complicity in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Included in the sanctions are the Secretary General of the Belarus Red Cross, Dzmitry Shautsou. Russia’s federal government and Belarus’ regime have been working together to coordinate and fund the movement of children from Ukraine to Belarus. Both Ukraine and the Belarusian democratic opposition have labelled the transfers unlawful deportations.
On October 4, 2023, IFRC called for Shautsou’s removal, and on December 1, 2023, IFRC suspended the membership of the Belarus Red Cross Society for non-compliance with this order due to their refusal to remove him from his position.
Lukashenka crony Aliaksandr Shakutsin and his form Amkodor have enjoyed a favored position in the supply of western construction equipement into Russia, as well as the development and production of attack drones and artillery fire systems.
The new sanctions also include cement, logging, pulp & paper interests, as well as Beltamozhservice,a state-owned Belarusian logistics provider that operates under Belarus’s State Customs Committee.
Also sanctioned is Tabak Invest, the only private producer of tobacco in Belarus. Its principals have been "heavily involved in an elaborate cigarette smuggling scheme into Russia," according to the Treasury statement.
Other entities included in the sanctions action are involved in the optics and optoelectronics sectors, as well as radar and microelectronics manufacturers.
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