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Foreign Ministry considers EU extension of sanctions against Belarus counter-productive

Archive photo ITAR-TASS

Archive photo ITAR-TASS

MINSK, October 30 (Itar-Tass) - The European Union Council’s decision to extend sanctions against Belarusian citizens and enterprises is mistakable, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said on Wednesday.

The sanctions should be lifted, the Belarusian diplomat said, adding, “We can note a tendency towards reducing sanctions. However, the EU decision is mistakable and counter-productive.”

“Based on the sanctions it is impossible to build partnership and cooperation in order to meet the interests of Belarusian citizens and the EU countries,” Savinykh said.

On October 29, the European Union extended the sanctions against Belarus to October 31, 2014.

In the communique the European Union Council said this was conditioned by the fact the situation related to human rights and the supremacy of law had not improved in Belarus. Political prisoners were not released and no prisoner was rehabilitated, the communique says.

The list of officials and companies changed. It included the names of 232 persons and 25 organisations. The previous list included 242 persons and 30 companies.

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