Belarus leader has little to fear from EU sanctions - analysts

FILE PHOTO: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks at Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Heads of Government Council in Minsk, Belarus May 28, 2021. Sputnik/Alexander Astafyev/Pool via REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - EU sanctions designed to punish veteran Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko for a sweeping political crackdown will leave him largely unscathed and able to continue financing the economy and his security forces, rating agencies and analysts say.

The European Union imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Belarus last week in response to Lukashenko's grounding in May of a Ryanair plane flying over Belarus and the arrest of an opposition journalist and his girlfriend who were on board, a move some EU politicians likened to air piracy.