The Baltic countries have jointly extended sanctions on Belarusian officials responsible for organizing the presidential election and the violent crackdown that followed.

On Friday, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs unveiled a list of an additional 98 officials. The first list, which had 30 names including Alexander Lukashenko, was published on August 31. In total, the three countries have now sanctioned 128 officials.

The officials featured on the list have been banned from entering Estonia between September 25, 2020 and August 30, 2025.

These individuals have played key roles in falsifying the election results in Belarus and in using violence against peaceful protesters, the ministry said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu said: “These sanctions express our position on what is happening in Belarus. The presidential elections on August 9 were neither free nor fair and their results were falsified. The so-called inauguration this Wednesday had no democratic legitimacy whatsoever and Estonia does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as the president of Belarus.

We call on the Belarusian authorities to immediately end the violence against the people of Belarus, and demand the unconditional release of all those detained, including political prisoners. The people of Belarus deserve fair and transparent elections to allow them to elect a new leader.”

He also called on the European Union to reach a joint decision and to act, as reported by https://news.err.ee.