In retaliation for what the EU considers was rigged presidential elections on 19 March 2006, the Council decided on 18 May to freeze bank accounts and other financial assets of Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenka and 35 senior Belarus officials and their families. The new measures are binding on all EU member states, and they do not affect humanitarian aid.
In April, the EU as well as the US imposed a travel ban on the country's top officials. Washington has not yet frozen Lukashenka's assets.
Currently in his third term, Lukashenka has been in office since 1994. He claimed to have garnered 83% of the vote in March. The EU has accused Lukashenka of violating international electoral standards and of cracking down on the opposition.
Officials in Belarus have condemned the EU's move as pointless, unconstructive and biased. "You cannot help but laugh at such measures," Reuters quoted one affected official as saying.
