Sanctions enforcement is intensifying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyijX9qR28w

Pavel Latushka: Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Representative of the Cabinet for the Transition of Power, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, Leader of the "Latushka Team and the Movement 'For Freedom'" faction within the 3rd convocation of the Coordination Council. 

We have repeatedly warned that helping Lukashenko circumvent sanctions can result in prosecution and even imprisonment. Among other things, we reported that the European Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on criminal liability for violations of EU sanctions.

February 18, 2026 became a landmark date in the chronicle of the fight against sanctions evasion in Europe. A joint operation by Poland's National Tax Administration and the Internal Security Agency led to the detention of a group of six people — four Belarusian citizens and two Polish citizens. It is important to note that the issue is not the nationality of those detained, but the very fact of the law being broken.

Officers of Poland's Internal Security Agency escorting a suspect in a espionage case. Photo: Leszek Szymanski/EPA/dpa/picture alliance

The subject of the crime was a device for automating the production of integrated circuits intended for the assembly of combat drones. The route: Poland — Belarus — Russia. This is a signal that the grey zone of transit through Belarus has definitively become a zone of heightened risk and inevitable accountability.

In this case, Polish law enforcement acted within the framework of an investigation linked to national security. This is not about a formal violation of export procedures, but an attempt to circumvent the sanctions regime in force against Russia and the Lukashenko regime that supports it.

For a long time there existed an illusion that sanctions were merely "political declarations" that could be bypassed through complex logistics, shell companies, and the substitution of customs codes. However, by 2026, the EU and Polish control mechanisms had undergone a profound transformation.

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