MINSK, 3 December (BelTA) - Professor of Belarusian State University, economist Mikhail Kovalev spoke about possible options for Belarus' response to Western sanctions in an interview with the SB. Belarus Segodnya newspaper, BelTA has learned.
“If the sanctions policy continues, in response we can impose sanctions on the supply of European goods to Belarus. This is billions of dollars. This will be very damaging to European business and those Belarusians (and there are a lot of them now) who work in all sorts of dealerships and similar companies selling goods, from cheese and whiskey to paints, in Belarus. Ukraine has also joined the anti-Belarusian sanction campaign. Ukraine is actually the main market for the Mozyr oil refinery. Everything from the cars of Ukrainian high officials to Ukrainian tanks are fueled by Belarusian-made gasoline. What if we stop supplying oil products to Ukraine? Yes, the refinery will suffer, but in general our country will hardly notice this maneuver. The amount of taxes that the Mozyr refinery pays to the budget will reduce slightly,” Mikhail Kovalev said. As for the Baltic countries, which rush to impose political sanctions against us even ahead of the European Union, they have never applied economic restrictive measures against Belarus. They understand that they will get an adequate response. For example, we can redirect cargo flows from the Baltic seaports to the Russian Federation. “Of course, it will take time and will be less profitable for us, but their losses will be much more tangible. You know how resolute our president is. If the economic sanctions against Belarus are significant, he may instruct, for example, to shut down the oil and gas pipeline in winter. Nord Stream 2 has not been completed yet. I do not think the sanctions against us will be as big as are currently discussed,” he said.
According to the professor, economic sanctions (like calls for strikes) aim to cause public discontent with the authorities. “I think people are already beginning to understand that the last four months of political instability have caused much damage to the Belarusian economy, and thus to the wellbeing of Belarusians. Two more months will pass and people will remember the last twenty years as their best period from the economic point of view,” said Mikhail Kovalyov.
He also believes that the main goal of Lithuania and Poland is to pull Belarus out of the union with Russia and to encircle Russia. “The aim of the chain is to isolate Russia. Our goal is not to become a hostile isolator for Russia but a bridge between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union,” the economist said.
