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Sanctions and troop deployments before 26 December 2020
Summary
Two moves by outside powers in late December 2020 showed how Belarus and the Central African Republic drew foreign involvement.
What were outside powers doing in Belarus and the Central African Republic as 26 December 2020 arrived? In both cases they were taking sides.
On 23 December 2020, the Trump administration imposed additional sanctions on Belarusian officials and four offices. The stated reason was human rights abuses during protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.
Two days earlier, on 21 December 2020, Rwanda deployed what it called a "protection force" to the Central African Republic. Its peacekeepers had been attacked by rebel forces advancing on the capital, Bangui. The Rwandan and Central African Republic governments accused former President François Bozizé of backing the rebels and plotting a coup. He denied it. Russia also sent troops and heavy weaponry to support the government.
The two cases differ in kind: one was a financial and political penalty aimed at officials, the other a military deployment to defend a government under rebel pressure. Both show states acting beyond their own borders in the closing days of 2020, whether to press a government over its treatment of protesters or to shore up one facing an armed advance.
