III 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 345 

Expressing the sense of the Senate on the political situation in Belarus. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 9, 2021 

Mrs. SHAHEEN (for herself, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. WICKER, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. 

PORTMAN, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. MARKEY, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. 

RUBIO, Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. KAINE, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, and Mr. COONS) 

submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 

on Foreign Relations 

NOVEMBER 16, 2021 

Reported by Mr. MENENDEZ, with an amendment and an amendment to the 

preamble 

[Strike out all after the resolving clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[Strike the preamble and insert the part printed in italic] 

FEBRUARY 1, 2022 

Considered, amended, and agreed to with an amended preamble 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate on the political situation 

in Belarus. 

Whereas the United States Senate has long maintained 

strong bipartisan concern regarding the troubling lack of 

democracy in Belarus, highlighted by the passing of the 

Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 (Public Law 108–347; 

22 U.S.C. 5811 note); 


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Whereas the 116th Congress, as referenced in H.R. 8438, the 

Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sovereignty Act 

of 2020, and Senate Resolution 658, which both passed 

with unanimous support, stated its deep concern regarding the fraudulent election in Belarus on August 9, 2020; 

Whereas on September 17, 2020, the Moscow Mechanism of 

the human dimension of the Organization for Security 

and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was invoked by 17 

participating states with regard to credible reports of 

human rights violations before, during, and after the 

presidential election of August 9, 2020, in Belarus; 

Whereas, following Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s inauguration on 

September 23, 2020, the United States, the European 

Union, numerous European Union member states, the 

United Kingdom, and Canada announced they did not 

recognize the legitimacy of the election results; 

Whereas after the August 9, 2020 presidential election, the 

Government of Belarus responded to the resulting peaceful protests, the largest in the country’s history, with a 

violent crackdown, including the detention of more than 

10,000 peaceful protestors, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human 

rights in Belarus; 

Whereas the Government of Belarus, under the misrule of the 

Lukashenka regime, continues to engage in a pattern of 

clear and persistent violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and disrespects the basic principles of 

democratic governance by subjecting tens of thousands of 

pro-democracy political activists, peaceful protesters, and 

ordinary citizens to harassment, beatings, abductions, 

forced deportations, and imprisonment and by commitVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Feb 02, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR345.ATS SR345

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ting acts of transnational repression to punish any dissent expressed by Belarusian citizens; 

Whereas the Lukashenka regime continues to silence independent media, such as Nasha Niva, tut.by, and Belsat, 

and has unlawfully raided the offices of media outlets, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and arrested 

journalists; 

Whereas on September 11, 2020, then-Deputy Secretary of 

State Stephen Biegun said that ‘‘we stand by our longterm commitment to support the sovereignty of Belarus 

as well as its territorial integrity, as the aspirations of 

the Belarusian people to determine their own path remains in front of us’’; 

Whereas on May 23, 2021, the Lukashenka regime forced a 

commercial airliner flying between two European Union 

member states to land in Minsk in order for the regime 

to arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich and his partner 

Sofia Sapega, a violation of international law resulting in 

near universal condemnation from the international community and coordinated sanctions by the United States, 

the United Kingdom, and the European Union; 

Whereas on May 28, 2021, the White House announced the 

re-imposition of full blocking sanctions against nine 

Belarusian state-owned enterprises and announced a new 

Executive order to increase sanctions on elements of the 

Lukashenka regime; 

Whereas the Lukashenka regime has actively encouraged or 

forced at gunpoint more than 4,000 migrants from other 

countries to cross through Belarus into European Union 

member states Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, amounting 


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to people smuggling and obliging these countries to declare a state of emergency; 

Whereas on June 9, 2021, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate held a hearing regarding the political 

situation in Belarus, in which United States Ambassador 

to Belarus Julie Fisher testified that ‘‘Despite the oppression, the violence, and the turmoil that followed the 

events of the past year provide glimmers of hope. A new 

generation of brave Belarusians, with courageous women 

at the front, have emerged. They represent a Belarus determined to chart its own path. They represent a Belarus 

in which wearing a red and white dress, hanging a flag, 

or playing a particular song will not result in torture, 

forced confessions, or even death.’’; 

Whereas on July 27, 2021, President Biden met Belarusian 

opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya at the White 

House and declared that ‘‘The United States stands with 

the people of Belarus in their quest for democracy and 

universal human rights.’’; 

Whereas on August 9, 2021, President Biden— 

(1) announced an Executive order authorizing the 

imposition of blocking sanctions on certain sectors of the 

Belarus economy, including the potash, tobacco products, 

and construction sectors; and 

(2) pursuant to such executive order and Executive 

Order 13405, issued additional sanctions on Belarusian 

individuals and entities, including Belaruskali (a stateowned potash fertilizer company) and the Belarus National Olympic Committee; and 

Whereas Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana 

Tsikhanouskaya continues to represent the widely shared 


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desire of the Belarusian people for free and fair elections 

and democracy: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) continues, on the first anniversary of the il3 legitimate presidential election in Belarus on August 

4 9, 2020, to refuse to recognize Alyaksandr 

5 Lukashenka as the legitimately elected leader of 

6 Belarus; 

7 (2) condemns Lukashenka’s ongoing crackdown 

8 on members of the pro-democracy movement, senior 

9 members of the Coordination Council, peaceful pro10 testers, employees from state-owned enterprises par11 ticipating in strikes, independent election observers, 

12 independent journalists and bloggers, medical profes13 sionals, professors, teachers, athletes, and cultural 

14 leaders; 

15 (3) continues to call for the fulfillment by the 

16 Government of Belarus of Belarus’ freely under17 taken obligations as an Organization for Security 

18 and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) member and 

19 accept the OSCE’s offer to facilitate a national dia20 logue and fully participate in the OSCE process; 

21 (4) calls for new presidential and parliamentary 

22 elections to be held in Belarus, conducted in a man23 ner that is free and fair according to OSCE standVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Feb 02, 2022 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR345.ATS SR345

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1 ards and under the supervision of OSCE observers 

2 and independent domestic observers; 

3 (5) welcomes the United States Government’s 

4 close coordination with the European Union, the 

5 United Kingdom, Canada, other allied and partner 

6 countries, and international organizations to pro7 mote the principles of democracy, the rule of law, 

8 and human rights in Belarus and encourages contin9 ued coordination to apply maximal pressure on the 

10 Lukashenka regime; 

11 (6) continues to call for the immediate release, 

12 without preconditions, of all political prisoners in 

13 Belarus; 

14 (7) calls for the unconditional release of all po15 litical prisoners and journalists detained on dubious 

16 charges, including opposition candidates Sergei 

17 Tikhanovsky and Viktar Babaryka, pro-democracy 

18 activist Maria Kalesnikava, and Radio Free Europe/ 

19 Radio Liberty journalists Ihar Losik, Aleh 

20 Hruzdzilovich, and Andrey Kuznechyk; 

21 (8) condemns the forced diversion of Ryanair 

22 Flight 4978 to arrest Raman Pratasevich and his 

23 partner Sofia Sapega, which violated international 

24 civil aviation law and risked the lives of innocent 


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1 passengers and crew, and calls for their immediate 

2 unconditional release; 

3 (9) commends the bravery of Belarusians who 

4 have created innovative ways to protest 

5 Lukashenka’s autocracy and applauds the 

6 Belarusian diaspora’s efforts to maintain inter7 national focus on the deteriorating political situa8 tion; 

9 (10) lauds the extraordinary support offered by 

10 the Governments of Lithuania, Ukraine, and Poland 

11 to support the people of Belarus, including support 

12 for the political opposition, accommodation of polit13 ical refugees, and backing a free media; 

14 (11) calls on the Lukashenka regime to imme15 diately halt exploiting and instrumentalizing mi16 grants and to stop directing individuals to the bor17 ders of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland; 

18 (12) welcomes the Executive order announced 

19 on August 9, 2021, that applies additional sanctions 

20 on the Lukashenka regime and urges the Biden Ad21 ministration to consider further tools at its disposal 

22 to support democracy in Belarus; 

23 (13) welcomes the European Union sanctions 

24 imposed on the Lukashenka regime and urges the 


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1 United States to continue to coordinate additional 

2 measures with the European Union; and 

3 (14) emphasizes that the United States sup4 ports the people of Belarus in their quest to main5 tain their sovereignty, choose their own leadership, 

6 and live in freedom, and recognizes the extensive ef7 forts of the Belarusian opposition to coordinate ef8 forts with the United States, the European Union, 

9 the OSCE, and the United Nations to bring free and 

10 fair elections to its people. 

Æ 


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