BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/06/2006

Belarus Dismisses Latest US Sanctions

By VOA News

Belarus's Foreign Ministry has dismissed the latest U.S.-imposed sanctions aimed at freezing the U.S. assets of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and other government officials.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andrei Popov, Tuesday accused the United States of pursuing what he called "an old goal" of spreading false information about Belarus.

President Bush signed an executive order for the sanctions on Monday. The move also bars Americans and U.S. companies from doing business with Mr. Lukashenko and nine other officials.

The European Union froze Mr. Lukashenko's assets in Europe last month and joined the United States in imposing a travel ban on Belarusian senior government officials.

President Lukashenko was elected to a third term in March in a vote the West called fraudulent.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

Source:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-20-voa54.cfm