US, UK, and Canada fortify Belarus sanctions effort

The UK, US and Canada today all announced new sanctions on Belarus, on the anniversary of a disputed presidential election that sparked a year of domestic political turmoil and international backlash.

The sanctions — which complement measures imposed by the EU in June — reflect a growing dissatisfaction in the west with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's government and its crackdown on opposition.

An executive order issued by US President Joe Biden today authorizes sanctions against any current and former Belarusian government officials and executives of companies operating in the energy, fertilizers and other key export industries. Naming the industry in the executive order "provides notice that persons operating in the identified sector risk exposure to sanctions," the Treasury Department said.

The biggest casualty of these measures is state-owned potash producer Belaruskali, for which the US was an important export destination. US companies have until 8 December to wind down business dealings with the firm.

Oil trading companies New Oil (NNK) and Novopolotsk Interservice also appear on the US sanctions list. Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who visited the US last month and personally lobbied Biden and other US officials for a strong sanctions action, suggested adding Belaruskali and state-owned Belneftekhim's 323,000 b/d Mozyr refinery to the US sanctions list. Mozyr is not explicitly listed in the list of entities targeted by US sanctions today. The other major refinery in Belarus, the state-owned Naftan's 240,000 b/d Novopolotsk, is already under US sanctions.

"Together with our Canadian and British partners, today we are demonstrating continued international condemnation of the Lukashenko regime's undemocratic actions," US treasury secretary Janet Yellen said.

The US sanctions also target Belarusian businessman Mikhail Varabei — described by the Treasury as "Lukashenko's energy wallet" — and coal freight forwarder Belkaztrans that the US says he owns. One omission is Russian businessman Mikhail Gutseriev, who has been subject to EU sanctions since June and today was added to the UK's sanctions list.

Canada today imposed restrictions on the provision of financial services and debt to Belarus, and on business deals involving petroleum products and potassium chloride products. The UK announced sanctions to include potash and petroleum products, although is unclear exactly which of the latter will be included.

Blockages on Belarusian oil products imports will have little effect on the UK refining sector. The country has not imported any products from Belarus since 2017, and that was just 28,000t of refinery feedstocks — the equivalent of around one Handymax-sized cargo. For context, the UK imported 1.88mn t of oil products in June, according to the country's latest submission to the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (Jodi).

Today's UK sanctions also involve restrictions preventing Belarusian airlines from flying over or landing in the UK, and financial measures. These include "freezing of funds and economic resources" on sanctioned individuals, and preventing the state of Belarus, companies owned wholly or partially by the state, or anyone acting on behalf of one of these companies from accessing money-markets.

Belarus has used the London market to raise debt — the ministry of finance in June last year issued two dual-tranche benchmark Eurobonds worth $500mn and $750mn each for February 2026 and February 2031 respectively, according to the London Stock Exchange.

The EU imposed sanctions in June after the grounding of a commercial passenger flight, an incident in which opposition activist Roman Protasevich and masters student Sofia Sapega were detained. The UK government today reiterated a call for the two to be released along with other Belarusian political prisoners.

Lukashenko told reporters today he was not afraid of "threats from the west" and warned of "side effects" from sanctions applied against Belarus.

"Everyone is talking about the events on Belarus' borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia," he said. The EU has accused Lukashenko's government of enabling illegal migration from third countries through Belarus to its western neighbors.

By Haik Gugarats and Robert Harvey