Belarus leader has little to fear from EU sanctions – analysts – Reuters

Belarus leader has little to fear from EU sanctions – analysts – Reuters

MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - EU sanctions designed to punish veteran Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko for a sweeping political crackdown will leave him largely unscathed and able to continue financing the economy and his security forces, rating agencies and analysts say.

The European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus last week in response to Lukashenko's grounding in May of a Ryanair plane flying over Belarus and the arrest of an opposition journalist and his girlfriend who were on board, a move some EU politicians likened to air piracy.

The EU has also criticised Lukashenko's suppression of opposition protests, jailing of political rivals and strangling of critical media.