Lukashenko: West is scaling down its economic sanctions

BISHKEK, 9 December (BelTA) – The collective West is starting to scale down its thoughtless packages of economic sanctions against Belarus and Russia, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Bishkek, BelTA has learned.

“We see that the primitive massive issuance of thoughtless packages of economic sanctions by the collective West against Belarus and Russia is beginning to subside. Everything that could be banned and limited, even to their own detriment, has already been banned and limited by our counterparts. Now it's time for them to fathom the consequences. Everyone is now talking about the energy and food crises,” the head of state said.

“You don't have to be a visionary to assume that another crisis – a political one – is not long in coming in some countries. The writing is already on the wall. Households and businesses in a number of Western countries are becoming increasingly dissatisfied and critical. Statements about an imminent economic collapse in our countries have given way to sensitive assessments of observers, analysts and individual politicians who have realized that the sanctions hit the initiators themselves much more,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stated.

At the same time, he noted: “We look at things realistically and do not expect that this pressure will lessen in the near future or tomorrow. We have already hardened to a certain extent.”

“The most important thing is that we prevented deterioration of the living standards of people. We managed to do that, among other things, thanks to our joint efforts to counter external pressure and to maintain the stability of the national economies of the EAEU. The decisions taken within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union allowed significantly mitigating the negative effect of the sanctions and supporting important sectors of the economy,” the president said.

Yet, there is still a lot of work ahead, the Belarusian leader noted. In this regard, he named strategic areas of work that should be given priority attention in the EAEU.