FLASH NEWS
US removes Nebojsa Kariq and his family's company linked to Lukashenko from sanctions list
2025-08-22 13:30:30 / BOTA
The US Treasury Department has removed from the sanctions list the company Dana Holdings Limited (Dana Holdings), registered in Cyprus and linked to the Serbian Karic family, known for its support of the Slobodan Milosevic regime during the 1990s.
Also removed from the list was Nebojsa Karic, a Serbian and Cypriot citizen, the son of Serbian businessman Bogolub Karic, who, according to American authorities, had a key role in the company in question.
The Karic family's construction empire was blacklisted in 2021 as part of expanded sanctions against Belarus, including entities and individuals that, according to the US, benefited or kept alive the regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko to the detriment of the Belarusian people.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Treasury Department had targeted the company, stating that it had received numerous benefits through Lukashenko's presidential decrees - from the donation of state lands in Minsk worth nearly $800 million for a single project, to fiscal incentives, tax exemptions, the use of public resources for infrastructure works, and other privileged conditions.
At the time, it was noted that the Karic family had close ties to Lukashenko. Dana Holdings, according to the report, had offered employees a day off to attend a pro-Lukashenko rally after the August 9, 2020 elections - which the West considers to have been rigged - had displayed messages of support for the regime on leaflets and even opened an art gallery managed by Lukashenko's daughter-in-law in a shopping mall in Minsk.
Radio Free Europe previously reported that over the past few decades the Karic family had managed to rise to the top of the real estate industry in Belarus, securing huge financial benefits thanks to their close ties to Lukashenko - the leader who has ruled the country with an "iron fist" since 1994.
Following the massive protests of 2020, which erupted after contested presidential elections, his regime responded with brutal repression: over 32,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten by police, and key opponents were imprisoned or forced to flee Belarus.
In December 2020, the European Union imposed sanctions on Dana Holdings and one of its subsidiaries, accusing it of benefiting from and supporting the Lukashenko regime.
Then, on August 9, 2021, the US, Britain, and Canada imposed a new wave of trade and financial sanctions against Belarus, on the first anniversary of the elections that secured Lukashenko another term and sparked an unprecedented wave of protests.
In response, Lukashenko demanded that the US reduce the staff of the US Embassy in Minsk to just five people by September 1, 2021.
After the suppression of protests and international isolation, his regime has remained supported almost exclusively by Russia.
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