Brussels: The European Union will lift on Thursday its sanctions on around 170 Belarussians, including those on authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, for four months until 29 February 2016, three diplomats said.

The decision is set to be formalised at 1200 CET (1100 GMT) and published in the EU’s Official Journal on 30 October, taking effect on 31 October.

The decision follows Lukashenko’s pardoning of six jailed political prisoners in August, as well as an absence of fresh political repression following presidential elections that returned Lukashenko to office for a fifth term.

New approach

Diplomats say the EU’s list of around 140 individuals will be suspended from the end of October until the end of February, allowing those in question to move their money around and travel again. An arms embargo will remain.

However, the European Union will keep the sanctions under review. The suspensions could be allowed to expire if Belarus is seen as committing fresh rights abuses.

Four members of Lukashenko’s security services, suspected of being behind the disappearances of political opponents, will remain under sanctions.

The lifting of sanctions could mark a new phase in EU diplomacy that is less about preaching EU values and more about finding partners, following the failure of its European Neighborhood Policy launched in 2003. The policy has not stabilized or democratized the EU’s surroundings.

Lukashenko, shaken by the war in eastern Ukraine, is keen to explore ways to balance his alliances. He also wants to boost his economy, which is exposed to the recession in Russia and shrank by 4 per cent in the January-July period.