opposition candidates, leading to demonstrations in 
support of democracy. 
‘‘(13) On August 9, 2020, the Government of 
Belarus conducted a presidential election that was 
held under undemocratic conditions, did not meet 
international standards, involved government malfea-
sance and serious irregularities with ballot counting 
and the reporting of election results, and included 
restrictive measures that impeded the work of local 
independent observers and did not provide sufficient 
notice to the Organization for Security and Coopera-
tion in Europe (OSCE) to allow for the OSCE to 
monitor the elections, as is customary. 
‘‘(14) 
Illegitimate 
president 
Alyaksandr 
Lukashenka declared a landslide victory in the elec-
tion and claimed to have received more than 80 per-
cent of the votes cast in the election. 
‘‘(15) 
The 
leading 
opposition 
candidate, 
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, formally disputed the re-
ported results and was detained by government au-
thorities before being forced into exile in Lithuania. 
‘‘(16) Later in August, 2020, the United States 
Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun, and Eu-
ropean Union High Representative for Foreign and 
Security Policy, Josep Borrell, issued statements de-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
claring the Belarus elections to be fraudulent and 
neither free nor fair. 
‘‘(17) Following the illegitimate election results, 
tens of thousands of Belarusian protestors took to 
the streets, led predominately by women, resulting in 
the largest protest rallies in Belarus’ modern his-
tory, with over 1,400 reported as injured by 
Belarusian police in August and September 2020, 
over 37,000 detained by May 2021, and several 
killed for protesting the fraudulent election. 
‘‘(18) The Government of Belarus has consist-
ently restricted the free flow of information to si-
lence the opposition and to conceal the regime’s vio-
lent crackdown on peaceful protestors, including 
through the suppression of independent media and 
journalists, and disruption of free internet access. 
‘‘(19) After the employees of state media out-
lets 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. 
‘‘(20) Following Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Sep-
tember 23, 2020, inauguration, the United States, 
the European Union, numerous European states, the 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00006
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
United Kingdom, and Canada announced that they 
cannot consider Mr. Lukashenka as the legitimately 
elected leader of Belarus. 
‘‘(21) As a result of the Lukashenka regime’s 
violence against the Belarusian people and depriva-
tion of their fundamental rights, the United States 
Congress passed and the President signed into law 
the Belarus Democracy, Human Rights, and Sov-
ereignty Act of 2020 to demand the rights of the 
Belarusian people be respected and to hold account-
able those who undermine them. 
‘‘(22) As a result of the Lukashenka regime’s 
violence against its own people, in December 2020, 
Members of Congress and transatlantic parliamen-
tarians wrote a letter to the International Ice Hock-
ey Federation President demanding the Champion-
ship be relocated from Belarus. 
‘‘(23) In response to the Government of 
Belarus’ repressive actions following the 2020 elec-
tion, the United States, along with the European 
Union, imposed various sanctions packages on indi-
viduals and entities involved with the suppression of 
democracy in Belarus, including— 
‘‘(A) the Central Election Commission of 
the Republic of Belarus and officials deter-
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00007
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
mined to be responsible for undermining democ-
racy in Belarus; 
‘‘(B) entities and persons determined to be 
involved in the violent suppression of protestors, 
such as the Minsk Special Purpose Police Unit, 
the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the 
Minsk City Executive Committee, and KGB 
Alpha; and 
‘‘(C) state-owned enterprises that provide 
revenue to support Lukashenka’s authoritarian 
regime. 
‘‘(24) In April 2021, the House of Representa-
tives passed House Resolution 124 reaffirming that 
the August 2020 elections were neither free nor fair 
and that the House of Representatives does not rec-
ognize Alyaksandr Lukashenka as Belarus’ legiti-
mate president. 
‘‘(25) On May 23, 2021, the Government of 
Belarus forced Ryanair Flight 4978 to land in 
Belarus as it neared the border of Lithuania after 
calling in a false bomb report and subsequently ar-
rested independent Belarusian opposition blogger 
and political activist Raman Pratasevich and his 
girlfriend, threatening the safety of every passenger 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00008
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
aboard the civilian flight, and ultimately detaining 
Pratasevich as a political prisoner. 
‘‘(26) In May 2021, the European Union 
pledged a comprehensive plan of economic support 
worth up to 3 billion euros to assist in the develop-
ment of a future, democratic Belarus following a 
democratic transition. 
‘‘(27) As of April 2024, the Government of 
Belarus, led illegally by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, un-
lawfully holds nearly 1,300 people as political pris-
oners, including dozens of journalists, peaceful 
protestors, business leaders, and democracy activists, 
including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journal-
ists Ilhar Losik and Ihar Karney, Andrzej Poczubut, 
a 
Polish-Belarusian 
journalist, 
and 
Artsiom 
Liabedzka, the son of Anatol Liabedzka, an exiled 
leader of the democratic opposition. 
‘‘(28) The Government of Belarus, led illegally 
by 
Alyaksandr 
Lukashenka, 
has 
consistently 
weaponized migrants and asylum seekers by trans-
porting them to Belarus’ borders with the NATO 
and European Union countries of Latvia, Lithuania, 
and Poland in an attempt to destabilize each country 
by creating diplomatic border crises, and in violation 
of the migrant and asylum seekers’ human rights. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00009
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
‘‘(29) The Government of Belarus has been 
complicit in Russia’s illegal and full-scale invasion of 
Ukraine. 
‘‘(30) In advance of Russia’s unprovoked war of 
aggression against Ukraine, Alyaksandr Lukashenka 
opened Belarus’ borders to the Russian military, 
serving as a staging area, providing bases for train-
ing and for launching air strikes and invasion forces, 
and providing logistical support to the Russian inva-
sion force which attacked Ukraine in February 
2022. 
‘‘(31) In February 2022, just days after Rus-
sia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Alyaksandr 
Lukashenka held a constitutional referendum de-
scribed by the Department of State as ‘not free or 
fair’ which, among other provisions, would endow 
Lukashenka with lifetime immunity from prosecu-
tion for his crimes, allow Russian nuclear weapons 
to be stationed on the territory of Belarus, and for-
mally revoke Belarus’ status as a neutral nation. 
‘‘(32) Since the start of Russia’s brutal and 
unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine, the Gov-
ernment of Belarus has consistently worked to fur-
ther the so-called ‘Union State’ with the Russian 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00010
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
Federation and deepen joint military and economic 
ties to support Russia’s war effort. 
‘‘(33) 
Throughout 
Russia’s 
brutal 
and 
unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine, the Gov-
ernment of Belarus has participated in the abduc-
tion and illegal deportation of Ukrainian civilians 
from territory occupied by the Russian Federation, 
including thousands of children sent to facilities in 
Belarus for ‘re-education’ as detailed in a November 
2023 report by the Yale University Humanitarian 
Research Lab’s Conflict Observatory. 
‘‘(34) The now-suspended Belarusian branch of 
the Red Cross has publicly confirmed its involvement 
in transferring children from Ukraine to the terri-
tory of Belarus, and the illegitimate leader of the 
Government of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, 
has publicly confirmed that he permitted these 
transfers. 
‘‘(35) In Spring 2023, the Government of 
Belarus announced plans for the deployment of nu-
clear weapons from the Russian Federation to the 
territory of Belarus, which reportedly began in the 
summer of this same year. 
‘‘(36) The Government of Belarus has harbored 
the Wagner Group, a private military company the 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00011
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
United States has designated as a Transnational 
Criminal Organization, and provided facilities, re-
sources, and a staging ground for the group’s crimi-
nal operations. 
‘‘(37) The Government of Belarus has report-
edly provided the Government of the Russian Fed-
eration with tens of thousands of tons of ammuni-
tion throughout Russia’s unprovoked war of aggres-
sion in Ukraine. 
‘‘(38) As a result of the Government of 
Belarus’ support to the Russian Federation during 
its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, 
the United States, the European Union, and the 
United Kingdom have repeatedly issued further 
sanctions packages against the Lukashenka regime 
to target Belarusian military officers as well as indi-
viduals in the military sector, restrictions on entities 
in Belarus’ defense and industrial sectors, and enti-
ties that provide support to Belarus’ military and in-
dustrial sectors. 
‘‘(39) The Government of Belarus is reportedly 
engaging in the purchase of significant amounts of 
military equipment from the sanctioned Islamic Re-
public of Iran. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00012
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
‘‘(40) On August 6, 2023, the Belarusian 
democratic opposition issued a declaration express-
ing their objective of developing democracy in 
Belarus and pursuing membership in the European 
Union and, by extension, joining the Trans-Atlantic 
community. 
‘‘(41) The democratic opposition of Belarus 
have called on the Government of Belarus, led ille-
gally by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to end its com-
plicity and involvement in the war in Ukraine, and 
urged against the conscription of men into the 
Belarusian military. 
‘‘(42) On February 28, 2022, the Department 
of State ordered the departure of United States Gov-
ernment employees and the suspension of operations 
of the United States Embassy in Minsk. 
‘‘(43) On August 21, 2023, the United States 
Government directed all United States citizens to 
leave Belarus immediately due to the illegitimate 
Belarusian authorities’ continued cooperation with 
the Russian military and facilitation of Russia’s 
unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine, and 
the risk of detention and arbitrary enforcement of 
local laws against United States citizens. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00013
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS
‘‘(44) In September 2023, the Government of 
Belarus deprived Belarusians living abroad of their 
ability to renew their passports through Belarusian 
embassies in an attempt to make life difficult for 
and to force exiles, critics, and expats to return to 
Belarus for document renewal and possibly face per-
secution. 
‘‘(45) In December 2023, the United States 
Government held a Strategic Dialogue with the 
Belarusian democratic opposition and civil society 
and subsequently announced a continuation of ef-
forts to hold Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his regime 
accountable for their crimes, a commitment to sup-
porting Belarusian culture, sovereignty, and national 
identity, as well as the need for future working 
groups with the democratic opposition. 
‘‘(46) On February 25, 2024, the Government 
of Belarus administered fraudulent parliamentary 
elections in an environment marked by censorship, 
persecution of political opposition, illegal manipula-
tion of the vote, and the lack of any international 
observers from credible organizations. 
‘‘(47) In December 2024 Lukashenka an-
nounced that Belarus is hosting dozens of Russian 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
01:15 May 21, 2025
Jkt 059200
PO 00000
Frm 00014
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\H3201.IH
H3201
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS