Minsk tries to bargain with Brussels

“Lukashenka bargaining with the EU”, leads Dziennik Gazeta Prawna as European Union foreign ministers are to decide what kind of sanctions to impose on Belarus in response to the brutal harassment of the opposition by president Lukashenko’s regime following the December presidential elections (which Mr. Lukashenko won, but whose legality was widely disputed). According to the Warsaw daily, Brussels is to ban nearly 160 high-level Belarusian officials, including the president himself and his two sons, from visiting the EU and will put a ban on trade between EU companies and the Belarusian energy companies that generate the bulk of the Minsk regime’s foreign income. Meanwhile, Mr Lukashenko has unexpectedly released from jail two opposition activists arrested during the December unrest. “This way, the regime is starting another bargain with Brussels: more political prisoners will be freed if the EU abstains from sanctions”, comments DGP.