Fertilizer Markets and Finance

There was speculation ahead of Friday’s meeting that the EU might announce it was recalling all its ambassadors from Minsk.

EU officials did not take such a decision, but Skoog indicated the EU could take further action against Belarus this autumn.

“We will be reviewing sanctions, restrictive measures against Belarus later on in the next few months,” he said.

“As you know, the situation as to the political prisoners, the repression against civil society, and the lack of democracy in Belarus is a determining factor in restrictive measures against that country,” Skoog added.

“And certainly the latest [incident] — and this is the way it is going to be spelled out in the next few weeks — the decision against the Swedish Embassy will, of course, also have an effect on how we discuss our relations with Belarus.”

The U.S.-based rights watchdog Freedom House is among several international NGOs that have been following the teddy bear incident and its fall-out.

“October seems relatively far away, but building momentum and pushing for more sanctions is what’s needed,” said Susan Corke, the director of Eurasia programs at Freedom House, who spoke to RFE/RL after the EU meeting.

“[Potash mining giant] Belaruskali is one [company] that Freedom House has identified as an important one to be considered to add to sanctions and [the EU should] expand the visa bans and continue to maintain solidarity throughout the EU countries,” she said. “Belarus has been good at exploiting that in the past.”

The EU has already imposed a series of sanctions on Minsk for its crackdown on members of the Belarus political opposition.

Read more at Radio Free Europe