III 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 689 

Condemning the crackdown on peaceful protestors in Belarus and calling 

for the imposition of sanctions on responsible officials. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 

Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. GRAHAM, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. ROMNEY, Mr. 

COONS, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. PORTMAN, and Mr. KAINE) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning the crackdown on peaceful protestors in Belarus 

and calling for the imposition of sanctions on responsible 

officials. 

Whereas Alyaksandr Lukashenka has ruled Belarus as an undemocratic dictatorship since the first presidential election in Belarus in 1994; 

Whereas subsequent presidential elections in Belarus have 

been neither free nor fair and have been rejected by the 

international community as not meeting minimal electoral 

standards, with the jailing of opposition activists frequently used as a tool of government repression before 

and after the elections; 


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Whereas, in response to the repression and violence during 

the 2006 presidential election, Congress passed the 

Belarus Democracy Reauthorization Act of 2006 (Public 

Law 109–480); 

Whereas, in March 2011, the Senate unanimously passed 

Senate Resolution 105, which— 

(1) condemned the December 2010 election in 

Belarus as ‘‘illegitimate, fraudulent, and not representative of the will or the aspirations of the voters in 

Belarus’’; and 

(2) called on the Lukashenka regime ‘‘to immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners 

in Belarus who were arrested in association with the December 19, 2010, election’’; 

Whereas, in advance of the August 2020 presidential elections in Belarus, authorities acting on behalf of President 

Lukashenka arrested journalists, bloggers, political activists, and opposition leaders, including three leading presidential candidates (Syarhey Tsikhanouski, Mikalay 

Statkevich, and Viktar Babaryka), who were barred from 

running in the election by the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus; 

Whereas, while the three opposition candidates were imprisoned, two of their wives and one of their campaign managers, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Veranika Tsepkala, 

and Maria Kalesnikava, joined together and ran in place 

of the candidates; 

Whereas thousands of Belarusian people demonstrated their 

support for these candidates by attending rallies, including one rally that included an estimated 63,000 participants; 


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Whereas, on August, 5, 2020, the Senate unanimously passed 

Senate Resolution 658, which calls for a free, fair, and 

transparent presidential election in Belarus, including the 

unimpeded participation of all presidential candidates; 

Whereas presidential elections were held in Belarus on August 9, 2020, under undemocratic conditions with reports 

of malfeasance on the part of Lukashenka’s government, 

including early voting ballot stuffing, ballot burning, 

pressuring poll workers, and removing bags full of ballots 

by climbing out of windows; 

Whereas incumbent president Alyaksandr Lukashenka declared a landslide victory in the election and claimed to 

have received more than 80 percent of the votes cast in 

the election; 

Whereas the leading opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya— 

(1) formally disputed the government’s reported 

election results; 

(2) explained that her staff had examined the election results from more than 50 polling places; and 

(3) found that her share of the vote exceeded 

Lukashenka’s share by many times; 

Whereas, on August 10, 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was 

detained while attending a meeting with the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus and forced 

to flee to Lithuania under pressure from government authorities; 

Whereas, on August 11, 2020, Lithuanian Foreign Minister 

Linas Linkevicˇius announced that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was safe in Lithuania and has continued to be one 

of the strongest voices supporting the pro-democracy 


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movement in Belarus within the European Union and 

globally; 

Whereas, on August 11, 2020, the European Union High 

Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep 

Borrell, issued a declaration on the presidential election 

in Belarus stating that the elections were neither free nor 

fair; 

Whereas, on August 18, 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya announced the formation of a Coordination Council to oversee a resolution to the crisis in Belarus and a peaceful 

transition of power; 

Whereas, on August 19, 2020, European Council President 

Charles Michel announced that the European Union 

would impose sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression, and election 

fraud in Belarus; 

Whereas, on August 28, 2020, United States Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun declared that the August 

9th election in Belarus was fraudulent; 

Whereas, since the sham election on August 9, 2020, tens of 

thousands of Belarusian citizens have participated in 

daily peaceful protests calling for a new, free, and fair 

election, and the release of political prisoners; 

Whereas according to Amnesty International, on August 30, 

2020, Belarusians held one of the largest protest rallies 

in the country’s modern history in Minsk and in other 

cities, which was attended by at least 100,000 people who 

demanded the resignation of President Lukashenka and 

an investigation into the human rights violations in 

Belarus; 


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Whereas women have played a leading role in the protests, 

including by forming peaceful solidarity chains of thousands of Belarusians symbolically dressed in white; 

Whereas more than 7,000 Belarusian citizens have been detained by government authorities, mostly for taking part 

in or observing peaceful protests, with many of these arrests followed by beatings and torture at the hands of 

Belarusian law enforcement; 

Whereas authorities in Belarus have consistently restricted 

press freedom as part of the crackdown, including— 

(1) the arrest of dozens of journalists, six of whom 

report for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; 

(2) blocking more than 50 news websites that were 

covering the protests; 

(3) halting the publishing of two independent newspapers; and 

(4) stripping the accreditation of journalists working 

for foreign news outlets; 

Whereas internet access in Belarus has been repeatedly disrupted and restricted since August 9, 2020, which independent experts and monitoring groups have attributed 

to government interference; 

Whereas after employees of state media outlets walked off the 

job in protest rather than help report misleading government propaganda, Lukashenka confirmed that he ‘‘asked 

the Russians’’ to send teams of Russian journalists to replace local employees; 

Whereas Lukashenka appealed to Russian President Vladimir 

Putin to provide security assistance to his government, if 

requested, and Putin confirmed that a reserve police 


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force was ready to be deployed if ‘‘the situation gets out 

of control’’; 

Whereas the Belarus Ministry of Defense threatened to send 

the army to confront protestors, warning that in case of 

any violation of peace and order in areas around national 

monuments, ‘‘you will have the army to deal with now, 

not the police’’; 

Whereas, according to the Viasna Human Rights Centre, at 

least 450 detainees have reported being tortured or otherwise ill-treated while held in incommunicado detention 

for up to 10 days, including through— 

(1) severe beatings; 

(2) forced performance of humiliating acts; and 

(3) sexual violence and other forms of violence; 

Whereas at least four Belarusians have been killed at protests, and dozens of Belarusians who were detained during the protests are still missing; 

Whereas, on or around September 6, 2020, the opposition 

leader, Maria Kalesnikava, and members of the Coordination Council, including Anton Ronenkov, Ivan Kravtsov, 

and Maxim Bogretsov, were detained by authorities who 

sought to forcibly expel them to Ukraine; 

Whereas opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova tore up her 

passport at the Ukrainian border in a successful effort to 

prevent this expulsion, subsequently disappeared, and 

was discovered in a Minsk prison on September 9, 2020; 

Whereas the International Covenant on Civil and Political 

Rights, done at New York December 19, 1966, was ratified by Belarus in 1973, guaranteeing Belarusians the 

freedom of expression and the freedom of association; 

and 


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Whereas, in 2006, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13405, titled ‘‘Blocking Property of Certain 

Persons Undermining Democratic Processes or Institutions in Belarus’’, which authorized the imposition of 

sanctions against persons responsible for— 

(1) undermining democratic processes in Belarus; or 

(2) participating in human rights abuses related to 

political repression in Belarus: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) finds that— 

3 (A) the elections held in Belarus on Au4 gust 9, 2020, were neither free nor fair; and 

5 (B) the results announced by the Central 

6 Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus 

7 are invalid; 

8 (2) stands in solidarity with the people of 

9 Belarus, including human rights defenders, bloggers, 

10 and journalists, who are exercising their right to 

11 freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and rule 

12 of law; 

13 (3) recognizes the leading role of women in the 

14 peaceful protests and pro-democracy movement in 

15 Belarus; 

16 (4) condemns the unrelenting crackdown on, ar17 bitrary arrests of, and violence against peaceful proVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:31 Sep 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR689.IS SR689

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1 testers, opposition leaders, human rights activists, 

2 and independent media by authorities in Belarus; 

3 (5) condemns the unjustified detention and 

4 forced or attempted expulsion of members of the Co5 ordination Council in Belarus; 

6 (6) demands the release of all political prisoners 

7 and those arrested for peacefully protesting, includ8 ing those arrested before the August 9, 2020, elec9 tion; 

10 (7) applauds the commitment by foreign dip11 lomats in Minsk to engage with Coordination Coun12 cil member and Nobel Laureate, Svetlana Alexievich, 

13 and encourages an ongoing dialogue with her and 

14 with other leaders of the democratically oriented po15 litical opposition in Belarus; 

16 (8) calls on the Government of Belarus to up17 hold its human rights obligations, including those 

18 enumerated in the International Covenant on Civil 

19 and Political Rights; 

20 (9) calls on the United States Government to 

21 impose targeted sanctions, in coordination with the 

22 European Union and other international partners, 

23 against officials in Belarus who are responsible 

24 for— 


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1 (A) undermining democratic processes in 

2 Belarus; or 

3 (B) participating in human rights abuses 

4 related to political repression in Belarus; 

5 (10) encourages the United States Government 

6 to continue working with its partners in Europe, 

7 particularly the Organization for Security and Co8 operation in Europe, to support the people of 

9 Belarus; and 

10 (11) supports— 

11 (A) the continued territorial integrity of 

12 Belarus; and 

13 (B) the right of the Belarusian people to 

14 determine their future. 

Æ 


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