Czech foreign minister calls for EU sanctions against Belarus to be eased

Czech foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek has suggested the EU drop most of its sanctions against Belarus. The country was facing economic crisis and might deepen its ties with the EU given the current difficult economic conditions in Russia, the foreign minister said at the start of a ministerial meeting in Brussels Monday. The EU last year prolonged a series of travel bans on around 170 top personalities of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko and some sanctions on selected firms until the end of February. Zaorálek said he expected to visit the Belarus capital Minsk in the near future.