Belarus on Tuesday asked the ambassador of the European Union and the Polish ambassador to leave the country and recalled its own ambassadors from Brussels and Warsaw, the Belarussian Foreign Ministry said. Minsk announced its move just as the EU formally decided to bring in new sanctions against Belarus, imposing restrictions on 21 judges and policemen to protest at deteriorating human rights under President Alexander Lukashenko.
The targeted Belarussian officials are be banned from travelling to EU member countries and face freezes of assets held by EU companies. "It has been suggested that the head of the EU delegation to Belarus and the ambassador of Poland to Belarus return to their capitals for consultations to communicate to their leadership the firm position of the Belarussian side that pressure and sanctions are unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh said in a statement.
Savinykh said Minsk was recalling its own envoys from Brussels and Warsaw and could take "other measures to protect its interests" under further pressure. He also said Belarus would blacklist the people who facilitated the introduction of sanctions against it. In power in the nation of 10 million since 1994, Lukashenko has tolerated little dissent, cracking down on public protests and jailing opposition leaders. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the latest move by Minsk would not affect Warsaw's position but declined to say how the situation could develop.