MOSCOW, 6 May (BelTA) – The economies of Belarus and Russia have endured the pandemic and will be able to withstand the sanctions, too. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Vladimir Semashko made the statement after a wreath-laying ceremony at the Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow on 6 May, BelTA has learned.
Vladimir Semashko said: “Even before the sanctions there was COVID-19 but the economies of Russia and Belarus endured. GDP growth rate targets were hit in Belarus and Russia last year. If we look at Belarus-Russia trade, in 2021 the growth rate totaled 134.4% as against 2020. And the growth rate of Belarusian merchandise export to Russia in that complicated situation amounted to 124.7%. The figure was about 114.5% in January-March 2022. I think we will keep this level.”
“Sanctions represent a time of trials but also a time of opportunities when the weak perish and the strong become even stronger. The same happened to us after the Great Patriotic War, too,” Vladimir Semashko noted.
He reminded that the West had tried to scare Belarus and Russia with the collapse of their financial systems. “To their regret and to our luck they didn't collapse but the Russian ruble and the Belarusian one grew even stronger,” Vladimir Semashko stated. In his words, the same applies to industrial output in the two countries.
As a successful example of counteraction of sanctions the ambassador mentioned the space industry and reminded about a recent visit of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to Russia's Far East. “Prior to that we spent 2.5-3 years dealing with three problems: whether a Belarusian cosmonaut will fly into space or not, whether there will be a joint system for the remote sensing of Earth or not, and whether Belarusian specialists will participate in the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome or not. The process was slow. But now we've resolved all the problems in one go,” Vladimir Semashko stressed.
