MOSCOW (Reuters) ? New U.S. sanctions against state-owned enterprises in Belarus are "an act of aggression" and a blow to companies with ties to Russia, the former Soviet republic's prime minister said on Monday.
The United States imposed sanctions last Thursday against four firms owned or controlled by a company linked to President Alexander Lukashenko in response to his government's crackdown on the political opposition.
"I believe that this is an act of aggression against the Belarussian people, a blow to the Belarussian economy, especially sectors which are linked to the Russian Federation through cooperation," Belarussian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said at a meeting in Moscow.
The United States sanctions are intended to punish Lukashenko, who has remained in power since 1994 through elections Washington considers illegitimate, for his treatment of opponents and dissenters.
The new measures against Belarus, which lies between Russia and European Union states including Poland, were in addition to travel restrictions and other sanctions imposed this year against Lukashenko and other officials after a disputed December 2010 election.
They were "a response to the continued incarceration of political prisoners, the crackdown on political activists, journalists and civil society representatives," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Thursday.
The sanctions apply to the Belshina tyre factory, the Grodno Azot fertilizer manufacturer, the Grodno Khimvolokno fiber manufacturer, and the Naftan oil refinery, the State Department said.
The four firms are owned or controlled by the Belneftekhim Concern, the largest petrochemical conglomerate in Belarus which is already under sanction for being owned or controlled by Lukashenko, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
The comments made by Myasnikovich, who met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, echoed previous appeals to a sense of solidarity in Russia with the neighbouring Slavic, Orthodox Christian nation.
Many people in Russia see Belarus as a buffer against NATO and the EU. Russia has helped keep Belarus' Soviet-style state-dominated economy afloat with loans and inexpensive energy supplies despite often tense relations with Lukashenko.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; editing by Rosalind Russell)
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