MOSCOW, 18 February (BelTA) – Belarus and Russia will be strengthening their economic sovereignty, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the media following a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Moscow on 18 February, BelTA has learned.
"This sanctions pressure is absolutely illegitimate. This is a flagrant violation of international law, about which those, who invoke it now, care only when it suits them. And when it does not, they happily forget about all the norms of public international law. We understand this very well. Unfortunately, we have been living in this paradigm for many, many years, because the powers that be, the masters of today's life, as they think of themselves, always interpret everything only in their own favor and neglect the interests of others. The way to overcome this state of affairs is to grow stronger from within and, above all, economically," Vladimir Putin stressed.
The Russian head of state is convinced that the West is determined to impose new sanctions, regardless of whether there is a reason. Its goal is to slow down the development of Russia and Belarus. This is nothing more than unfair competition, the president said.
In such conditions, Belarus and Russia should boost import substitution and strengthen their economic sovereignty, Vladimir Putin believes. "Today it is important for us to raise the level of our economic sovereignty and be more capable, more advanced, to give new impetuses to the development of up-and-coming sectors of the economy. These are digitalization, artificial intelligence, genetics and so on. The integration, that we are promoting, pursues this goal too. The task is to increase our competitiveness," the Russian leader said.
