MOSCOW, 2 September (BelTA) – A proposal on Belarusian asymmetric sanctions against persons from the Baltic states has been worked out. Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei made the statement after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on 2 September, BelTA has learned.
Vladimir Makei said: “I'd like to say that we've also reached an interagency agreement and prepared proposals yesterday, they have been authorized already. Proposals on introducing asymmetric sanctions against the relevant persons from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. If other countries also enforce sanctions against Belarus, we will take adequate measures and produce an adequate answer.”
Speaking about the persons the Belarusian sanction list will include, Vladimir Makei said: “Those are the people who have been genuinely brazenly trying to interfere in domestic affairs of the Belarusian state by making the relevant political statements. Moreover, they made specific proposals on financial support for opponents of the government. It is absolutely unacceptable for us. We interpret it as interference in domestic affairs.”
Vladimir Makei noted the Belarusian side does not intend to publish its sanction list, but it contains a sufficient number of key persons from the three Baltic states. “Since Belarus and Russia have a common list of denied persons, I think it will make them think about things,” he added.
Vladimir Makei noted that Baltic states want to be ahead of the entire planet although during meetings and phone conversations in the past the sides agreed that sanctions are an absolutely unacceptable tool in interstate relations, they always push cooperation backwards by many years. “It was surprising for me when literally on the second day after the presidential election when it was still unclear how the situation will develop, opinions were voiced, primarily from the side of the Baltic states, that it is necessary to immediately introduce sanctions against Belarus,” Vladimir Makei pointed out. “In order to evaluate the situation, it is necessary to examine what is going on and produce a genuinely objective evaluation – whether those were peaceful protests or those were organized provocations against law enforcement agencies, which had to respond to these provocations as a result.”
