Belarus Dismisses New U.S. Sanctions

MINSK, Belarus -- Belarus on Thursday dismissed new financial sanctions imposed by the United States as politically senseless, and President Alexander Lukashenko said his country was ready to normalize relations with Washington.

In the latest effort by Washington to force change in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic, the Treasury Department said Tuesday it would freeze the assets of and prohibit Americans from doing business with Prosecutor General Pyotr Miklashevich, Education Minister Aleksandr Radkov and Information Vladimir Rusakevich. Three other top government officials were also targeted.

"Those who commit human rights abuses and political repression have no place in civil society," Treasury Department official Adam J. Szubin said. "We will continue to target Belarusian officials who abuse their positions to steal from their people and to suppress democracy and freedom."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov called the sanctions "an old song."

"They won't add anything new to the system of our relations today," he said.

Sixteen Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko, have been hit with financial sanctions and travel bans by the United States and the European Union in response to last year's widely criticized election. Lukashenko claimed victory in the election but Belarusian opposition groups and many Western government said the vote was deeply flawed.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for more than a decade, quashing dissent and opposition groups and building a Soviet-style, centrally controlled economy that has been heavily reliant on cheap Russian energy supplies.

In recent months, however, Minsk and Moscow have sparred over oil and natural gas supplies, and Moscow has sharply raised prices for energy exports to Belarus, markedly pinching its economy. Lukashenko and other officials have since toned down their often stridently bellicose rhetoric.

State-run news agency Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying Thursday that he was ready to improve relations with Washington.

"The sword is to the side. If the American deem it necessary to build normal relations with Belarus, then we are ready for this," he was quoted as saying. "We are ready to discuss any initiative, any condition, as long as they are acceptable and they take Belarusian interests into account. And in no cases should they ever put forward any absurd conditions, that we would of course not agree to."

He also emphasized Belarus' position as a key transit point for Russian energy supplies heading to Europe.

"Without Belarus, it won't be calm in Europe. Europe understands that if it isn't stable in Belarus then it won't be stable in Europe," he was quoted as saying.