VILNIUS, August 26. /TASS/. Over 100 Belarusian officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, were placed by Lithuania on an updated list of people against whom Vilnius intends to introduce sanctions, Rasa Jakilaitiene, spokeswoman of Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius, told reporters on Wednesday.
"Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has sent to the Interior Ministry an updated list of 118 people, including President Lukashenko," she said.
This is a second version of the sanctions list of the Baltic republic. The first list which included 32 people together with Lukashenko who, in the opinion of Vilnius, were involved in the falsification of the presidential election results in Belarus and the unjustified use of force against the protesters was submitted by the Foreign Ministry to the Interior Ministry for approval on August 19. The next day Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis stated that technical issues remained and after their resolution the list might be announced on Thursday or Friday, however, the process was delayed.
It is proposed to prohibit the individuals included on the list from entering Lithuania and freeze their assets, if any, in the republic’s financial institutions.
The presidential election in Belarus was held on August 9. According to the final results of the Central Election Commission, the incumbent president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko got 80.1% of the vote. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya who was considered his main opponent, came second with 10.12%. She refused to recognize the election results and soon left for the neighboring Lithuania where she remains to this day. Immediately after exit poll results were announced, mass protest rallies erupted in the country which in the early days were accompanied by clashes between protesters and law enforcement forces. The Coordination Council of the opposition created in the republic is urging to continue the protests. The authorities state the necessity to stop the unauthorized rallies.