Belarus

1956-09-12

Belarus

Pavel Georgievich Topuzidis (Topuzidis) and Viktor Evgenievich Petrovich (Petrovich) are two of Belarus’s richest oligarchs and are important ‘wallets’ for Lukashenka and his regime. Topuzidis is a close confidante and has served in leadership roles on an election commission in Minsk and as Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Entrepreneurship Development Council. Topuzidis, who has maintained considerable influence in Belarus, has personally funded three ice hockey palaces, including one on one of Lukashenka’s personal residences. Canada has also sanctioned Topuzidis for committing a grave breach of international peace and security. OFAC is designating Topuzidis pursuant to E.O. 14038 for operating or having operated in the tobacco sector of the Belarus economy. OFAC is designating Petrovich pursuant to E.O. 14038 for operating or having operated in the tobacco sector of the Belarus economy. Through their business, Tabak Invest LLC (Tabak Invest), — which until 2017 was the only private tobacco producer in Belarus — Topuzidis and Petrovich control 30 percent of Belarus’s tobacco production. According to investigative journalists in Belarus, Tabak Invest has been heavily involved in an elaborate cigarette smuggling scheme into Russia that has generated millions of dollars in revenue for the company.

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy1949

2023-12-05

US

Executive Order 14038 Blocking Property of Additional Persons Contributing to the Situation in Belarus

OFAC country specific

Belarus

Blocking Property, Suspending Entry, Trade sanctions

E.O. 14038. On August 9, 2021, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), issued E.O. 14038. In E.O. 14038, the President expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in E.O. 13405, finding that the Belarusian regime's harmful activities and long-standing abuses aimed at suppressing democracy and the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Belarus including illicit and oppressive activities stemming from the August 9, 2020, fraudulent Belarusian presidential election and its aftermath, such as the elimination of political opposition and civil society organizations and the regime's disruption and endangering of international civil air travel—constituted an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.

SDN