EU takes Russia to task over Belarus amid sanctions talk

EU foreign ministers pointed a finger at Russia’s ties to Belarus as they moved toward implementing harsher sanctions against Minsk after it forced down a commercial airliner and arrested a journalist. Diplomacy chiefs discussed in Lisbon how to implement measures against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko after the diversion of a Ryanair Holdings Plc flight crossing Belarusian airspace en route from Greece to Lithuania. The EU is working on new sanctions that could target potash, a soil nutrient that’s one of Belarus’s biggest exports, after the Ryanair incident. Leaders earlier this week asked ministers to come up with broader measures to target businesses and entire sectors of the country’s economy, including the financial industry. Shifting the focus from the immediate aftermath of the incident, diplomats also increasingly focused on Russia’s relationship with its fellow former Soviet neighbor. “Everyone knows that without Russia and without Russian support Lukashenko wouldn’t have any future in Belarus,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters on arrival at the Thursday gathering. “That’s why it’s important to remain in talks with Russia but also with the clear expectation we have of Belarus and that we are making clear with the sanctions.”<br/>