Biden Extends National Emergency With Respect to Belarus

US President Joe Biden has extended for one year a national emergency with respect to Belarus, declared due to an internal political crisis in Belarus, the White House said in a statement, according to Sputnik. 

"On August 9, 2021, by Executive Order 14038, I expanded the scope of the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13405... The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Belarus and other persons, and the Belarusian regime’s harmful activities and long-standing abuses, continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States... I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13405," Biden said in a statement as quoted by the White House.

Washington accuses the Belarusian leadership of electoral fraud and persecution of political opposition, which Minsk denies.

The Executive Order was expanded in 2021 and will now be continued for one more year.

The national emergency with respect to Belarus was originally declared on June 16, 2006, by Executive Order 13405 "to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States constituted by the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Belarus... to undermine Belarus’s democratic processes or institutions...; to commit human rights abuses related to political repression."