Appeal to the European Parliament Regarding Politically Motivated Confiscations in Belarus and Russia and the Need for an EU Compensation Mechanism for Victims of Repression
The Honourable Sabine Verheyen
First Vice-President of the European Parliament
The Honourable David McAllister
Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
European Parliament
Dear Ms. Verheyen,
Dear Mr. McAllister,
Europe was built on a fundamental lesson of the twentieth century: no government should be allowed to destroy its political opponents through confiscation, exile, and economic annihilation.
The architects of post-war Europe understood that democracy cannot survive if citizens may lose their homes, businesses, savings, inheritance rights, and future merely because of their political views. Property rights were therefore never viewed solely as economic rights. They became one of the foundations of political freedom itself.
Today, this principle is being challenged in the very heart of Europe.
Over the past several years, the authorities of the Republic of Belarus have developed a new and increasingly sophisticated instrument of political repression. Political opponents are no longer punished only through imprisonment. They are systematically stripped of their property, deprived of housing, economically ruined, and forced into exile. Their businesses are seized. Their apartments and homes are confiscated. Their bank accounts are frozen. Their families are deprived of economic security. Their children lose inheritance rights and realistic opportunities to return to their homeland.
The purpose of these measures extends far beyond punishment.
Their real objective is to sever the relationship between citizens and their country. To transform exile into a permanent condition. To ensure that those who challenge authoritarian rule can never realistically return home, rebuild their lives, or participate in the future of their nation.
Political confiscation is therefore no longer simply a property issue. It is becoming a citizenship issue.
The right to return to one's country, guaranteed under international law, becomes largely meaningless when individuals are deprived of their homes, livelihoods, businesses, and family assets. In practical terms, confiscation of property increasingly functions as a mechanism for forced and permanent political exclusion.
What makes this development particularly alarming is that Belarus is no longer an isolated case.
Recent developments in the Russian Federation demonstrate that similar mechanisms are being institutionalized on an even larger scale. Legislation adopted by the State Duma authorizing enforcement against the property of citizens living abroad and individuals designated as so-called “foreign agents” reflects the same underlying logic.
The European Parliament is therefore not confronted with separate violations occurring in two different countries.
It is confronted with the emergence of a transferable model of authoritarian governance.
Belarus pioneered many of these methods. Russia is increasingly adopting and expanding them. Other authoritarian governments will undoubtedly observe the effectiveness of such practices and may seek to replicate them if the international community fails to respond.
History demonstrates why this moment matters.
Throughout the twentieth century, confiscation of property was rarely an isolated legal measure. It was one of the defining instruments through which totalitarian systems consolidated power.
Before political opponents were physically eliminated, they were economically destroyed.
Before citizens lost their freedom, they lost their independence.
Before entire societies became subject to authoritarian control, individuals were deprived of the material foundations that allowed them to act freely, speak freely, and participate in public life.
Whether under National Socialism, Communist dictatorships, or other authoritarian systems, confiscation served the same purpose: to intimidate society, eliminate opposition, reward loyalty, and make resistance economically impossible.
Europe learned these lessons through immense suffering.
For that reason, the question before the European Parliament is far larger than Belarus. It is far larger than Russia. It is even larger than the issue of compensation itself.
The real question is whether Europe is prepared to prevent the normalization of political confiscation as an accepted instrument of state policy in the twenty-first century.
If democratic nations fail to establish consequences for such practices, a dangerous precedent will emerge. Authoritarian governments will be able to confiscate the property of political opponents, force citizens into exile, punish their families, and simultaneously continue to benefit from economic activities, state assets, and commercial interests maintained within democratic jurisdictions.
The attached draft resolution seeks to address precisely this challenge.
First, it recognizes politically motivated confiscation of property as a distinct form of political persecution, transnational repression, and collective punishment.
Second, it acknowledges that victims are not only political activists themselves but also their spouses, parents, and children, who increasingly become targets of economic and social retaliation.
Third, it calls for the creation of a European legal framework capable of providing meaningful remedies to victims while establishing clear deterrence against future abuses.
Most importantly, the resolution would begin the process of establishing a new international standard: that confiscation of property for political reasons cannot remain a domestic matter shielded from international scrutiny and consequences.
Such a step would have significance far beyond the immediate cases currently arising in Belarus and Russia.
It would reaffirm Europe's historic commitment to the principles that emerged after the tragedies of the twentieth century. It would strengthen the protection of human dignity, political freedom, and the rule of law. And it would send a clear message that the use of property confiscation as a tool of political terror, intimidation, forced exile, and collective punishment has no place in modern Europe.
History will judge not only those who commit such abuses but also those who fail to recognize their significance while there is still time to act.
For these reasons, we respectfully urge the European Parliament to consider and support the attached resolution.
Respectfully,
Dr. Valery Tsepkalo
Chairman of the Board, Belarus Democratic Forum, former Ambassador to the USA, Founder and CEO Belarus HiTech Park, Presidential Candidate 2020
Dmitry Bolkunets
Secretary General, Belarus Democratic Forum
DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION on Politically Motivated Confiscations of Property in Belarus and Russia and the Establishment of a European Compensation Mechanism for Victims of Political Repression
images/news/european-parliament-resolution.pdf