Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has said she asked US officials to impose sanctions on Belarusian companies during a visit to Washington this week to demand stronger action against President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.
Tsikhanouskaya said she delivered a list of companies in Belarus’s potash, oil, wood and steel sectors that the opposition would like to see sanctioned during a meeting with US State Department officials including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
Her requests included the state-owned Belaruskali producer of potash fertiliser.
Such measures would go beyond existing sanctions by the European Union and the United States and “will be a real hit on him, to make him change his behavior and to release political prisoners”, Tsikhanouskaya said during a meeting with reporters in Washington.
“I think it’s high time for democratic countries to unite and show their teeth,” said Tsikhanouskaya, who will also visit the White House and Capitol Hill.
