The Belarusian leader also accused the collective West of unwillingness to listen to Russia’s constructive proposals on preserving the international security system
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko believes that Minsk and Moscow use the Western sanctions to strengthen economic cooperation. He said this on Thursday at the Forum of Regions of Russia and Belarus.
“We will withstand the attacks that have been launched against our states <…> we will use this moment to strengthen our economic cooperation and make our states absolutely independent not only in terms of economy”, – Lukashenko said, stressing that Belarus is currently subject to blatant economic and political pressure from the West.
“Belarus maintains close contacts with more than 70 regions of Russia – from Smolensk to Sakhalin”, – said the president of Belarus, pointing out that it confirms that “there is no other large-scale integration platform in the Eurasian area, where Russian-Belarusian cooperation would develop so successfully.
The disruption of integration projects, as well as the change of the course in Minsk, is the purpose of the sanctions, which are imposed by the West against Belarus, Lukashenko believes.
“We are subjected to undisguised economic and political pressure. <…> The West is aimed at restraining the development, disruption of integration projects and changing the course of the Belarusian state”, – BelTA agency quotes Lukashenko.
He added that in relations with Belarus, the West has relied on force. “However, it is clear that all the sanctions are just unceremonious attempts to eliminate economic competitors and get a grip on human and material resources in our states,” said Lukashenko. According to the Belarusian leader, strengthening of unity and expansion of cooperation is of particular importance in these conditions.
In Belarus, August 9 last year, presidential elections were held, which, according to the official CEC data, Lukashenko won, while Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, representative of the opposition, who did not recognize the election results and fled the country, came in second place. This was followed by several months of mass protests in the country over the election results.
The leadership of a number of European countries and the US do not recognise the election results and consider the actions of the Belarusian law enforcers towards the protesters to be excessively harsh. Against this background, the West imposes sanctions and other restrictions on Belarus. Economic sectoral sanctions of the European Union against Belarus came into force on 25 June. This is the first time in history when economic restrictive measures have been imposed on Minsk. Also by this time the EU has introduced four packages of individual sanctions affecting 166 individuals and 15 entities, including such factories as MAZ and BelAZ. All the individuals on the list are banned from entering the EU and accessing European financial markets. European businesses are banned from having any economic relations with legal entities. In addition, the EU countries have refused to fly over the territory of Belarus and prohibited the Belarusian airlines to do so in the EU airspace.
Minsk considers such sanctions as short-sighted, flawed and bordering on interference in the internal affairs of Belarus.
International security
Lukashenko also accused the collective West of unwillingness to listen to Russia’s constructive proposals on preserving the international security system, which was established in the post-war era.
“The collective West, Washington, Brussels, does not always want to listen to [Russia’s] constructive proposals. Our opponents stall all sensible, positive initiatives and provoke new crises. In fact, the security architecture created after World War II is being deliberately destroyed”, – the Belarusian president said.