Director General of Belavia Igor Charginets reported on how the activities of the Belarusian airline are changing after the cancellation of sanctions by the U.S. administration.
“The U.S. sanctions against Belavia have been completely lifted, while the European ones have not. Now we are in the process of negotiations, primarily to expand the fleet of the airline. It will be increased next year,” quoted Igor Charginets, state news agency BelTA.
According to him, the official publication of documents on the cancellation of U.S. sanctions is a signal for American companies. “We’re already meeting with them. We had a good meeting with the vice-president of Boeing. We discussed how we are now expanding and renewing our co-operation. It makes it much easier to maintain aircraft, to buy spare parts, software. And financial issues, I mean making payments in dollars, are also becoming easier,” he added.
September 1, Deputy Special Representative of the U.S. President John Cole announced the lifting of sanctions against Belavia at a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko. Later, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the U.S. Department of Commerce specified that the restriction was lifted from eight Boeing aircraft, which can now perform international flights and undergo maintenance using U.S. parts.
The same day, after Lukashenka’s meeting with the US representatives, the Belarusian authorities released and deported 52 political prisoners from the country.
On 30 September, General Keith Kellogg, Special Representative of the US President, explained at the Warsaw Security Forum that the United States had lifted some sanctions on Belavia, mainly for flight safety reasons, but also to prevent the Belarusian authorities from using the planes for “criminal purposes”.
The ban on the use of aircraft to transport items subject to U.S. Export Administration Regulations (EAR) remained in place. Such items include any items intended to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The airline was allowed to maintain, repair, rebuild and refurbish aircraft, specifically to use items subject to export controls that were separately authorised for export or re-export to Belarus or for use by Belarusian aircraft.
On 4 November, the US partially lifted sanctions on Belavia. Two aircraft that may be linked to Aliaksandr Lukashenka, as well as a Slavkaliy helicopter allegedly used by Lukashenka, were removed from the sanctions.
Sanctions were also lifted from a Bombardier Challenger 850 aircraft used for official flights by government officials.