- The US targeted the Belarusian Olympic Committee in a new round of sanctions announced Monday.
- The Biden administration cited the failure of the committee to protect Olympians from "repression."
- A Belarusian sprinter sought asylum after criticizing the nation's Olympic program.
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Biden announced a new round of sanctions against Belarus on Monday, including targeting the authoritarian regime's Olympic Committee for "facilitating money laundering, sanctions evasion, and the circumvention of visa bans."
A White House statement also accuses the committee of failing to protect their Olympic athletes "from political discrimination and repression."
The sanctions come days after Belarus sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya sought asylum after criticizing the country's Olympic program. Following the scandal, two coaches were stripped of their credentials and thrown out of the Tokyo Games for allegedly trying to send Tsimanouskaya back to Belarus, where she claims she would have faced harsh punishment.
The Belarus government is led by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has overseen crackdowns on political dissent, including the capture of a journalist by rerouting his flight over a bogus bomb threat and arresting him at the airport.
"From detaining thousands of peaceful protesters, to imprisoning more than 500 activists, civil society leaders, and journalists as political prisoners, to forcing the diversion of an international flight in an affront to global norms, the actions of the Lukashenka regime are an illegitimate effort to hold on to power at any price," President Joe Biden said in a statement.
"The United States will continue to stand up for human rights and free expression, while holding the Lukashenka regime accountable, in concert with our allies and partners," he added.
The sanctions target not only the Olympic Committee, but also, certain parts of the Belarusian economy, including Belaruskali OAO - one of the largest state-owned enterprises, and the largest producers of potash in the world.
The new sanctions were announced on the anniversary of the Aug. 9, 2020 Belarus election, in which the US and international observers say Lukashenko used fraud to cling to power.
The American sanctions follow the action of other democracies, including the UK and Canada, who have also sanctioned the Lukashenko regime.