MINSK, 7 December (BelTA) – Belarus' response to the fifth round of sanctions should be tough enough to hit hard people in the countries that impose restrictions against Belarus, Professor at Belarusian State University Mikhail Kovalyov told the Respublika newspaper, BelTA informs.
“I think that the professionalism of the people who developed and approved all these rounds of sanctions is very questionable. It is very likely that the decision to impose the sanctions was pushed through by our ‘opposition' who kept insisting on them all the way. This opposition has little knowledge and understanding of economics. Therefore, the sanctions target primarily the enterprises that compete with EU manufacturers. The West uses every opportunity to have an impact on the economic situation at Belarusian enterprises and cause discontent among their employees, and most importantly - to weaken the Belarusian industry flagships.
According to the expert, the ultimate goal of Western politicians is obvious: they believe that if privatization is launched, the weakened enterprises can be bought for a song. “Therefore, we must think how to overcome these sanctions. It seems to me that this time the retaliatory measures (since this is the fifth round of sanctions) should be tough enough to impact voters from these very states. The simplest way is the following. Since they create problems for us with settlements in euros and dollars, we can introduce a requirement to apply for permission to convert proceeds earned by enterprises from the EU, USA, Canada and the UK. And this should be dealt with by a special commission. For example, if we need certain products that they supply to Belarus (for example, medicines), then a permission will be granted. The same applies to the profits received on the territory of Belarus. They should invest these profits here, because we will temporarily, until the sanctions are lifted, prohibit converting the profits from the countries that imposed the sanctions into foreign currency and take them out of the country. These are, of course, tough measures, but if another round of sanctions is passed, numerous Western companies, especially Polish and Lithuanian businesses operating in Belarus, will face the consequences and tell their rulers what they think of them,” Mikhail Kovalyov said.
