MINSK, Belarus—Belarus' government on Friday harshly criticized new U.S. sanctions against the ex-Soviet nation, saying they would hurt ordinary people.
On Thursday, the Bush administration slapped financial sanctions on three firms linked to a major state-controlled oil and chemical company, Belneftekhim.
"The United States has demonstrated that its actions are aimed against ordinary Belarusian citizens and infringe on interests of workers of the plants targeted by the sanctions," said Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Popov.
In the latest move, the U.S. Treasury Department ordered to freeze any assets found in the United States that belong to Lakokraska OAO, Polotsk Steklovolokno OAO and the Byelorussian Oil Trade House. It also prohibited Americans from doing business with them.
The United States is one of the fiercest critics of Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' authoritarian president, and relations have been on a downward spiral since the U.S. imposed sanctions on Belneftekhim last fall.
The U.S. ambassador left in March after Belarus pulled its ambassador from Washington. Most employees of the U.S. Embassy have been expelled in recent months.
The United States and the European Union also have imposed travel sanctions on Lukashenko and his officials. They say Lukashenko's government must release all political prisoners and end its crackdown on dissent as a condition for improving ties.
Lukashenko has rejected the demands.
On Friday, Belarusian police quickly dispersed about 50 opposition activists who attempted to hold a rally on the capital's central square to urge the release of political prisoners.
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been dubbed "Europe's last dictator" in the West. He won a third term in 2006 in an election that Western governments deemed fraudulent.
