⁍ The European Union imposed sanctions on Belarus’ interior minister and the head of its electoral commission but spared President Alexander Lukashenko.

---

⁍ The sanctions aim to support pro-democracy protests in Minsk against Lukashenko, whom opponents say has illegally prolonged his 26-year rule through a fraudulent vote.

---

– The European Union imposed sanctions on 40 officials in Belarus today in response to last month’s rigged presidential election, but left President Alexander Lukashenko off the list, Reuters reports. EU leaders broke the impasse following a summit dinner in Brussels in the small hours of today. The EU travel bans and asset freezes also include top security officials such as Alexander Valerievich Bykov, commander of rapid response forces and whom the EU accuses of “arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, including torture, of peaceful demonstrators.” Lukashenko is not on the EU’s list, however. Despite pressure from the EU’s Baltic states, diplomats say Brussels is sticking to its policy of punishing powerbrokers as a last resort, so as to push for new elections. EU leaders broke the impasse following a summit dinner in the small hours of Friday in Brussels. The EU’s Belarus sanctions aim to support pro-democracy protests in Minsk against Lukashenko, whom opponents say has illegally prolonged his 26-year rule through a fraudulent vote. The EU travel bans and asset freezes also include top security officials such as Alexander Valerievich Bykov, commander of rapid response forces and whom the EU accuses of ‘arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment, including torture, of peaceful demonstrators.’ Electoral commission chairwoman Lidia Mikhailovna Yermoshina is also now under sanctions, accused of intimidating voters and distorting the vote result. Belarus earlier announced retaliatory sanctions against the EU.