MOSCOW, 7 June (BelTA) – After the failed coup attempt in Belarus, the West, at the suggestion of the Belarusian opposition, proceeded to Plan B - a slow economic strangulation of the country, Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Pavel Feldman told BelTA commenting on the decision of European countries to ban Belavia from flying over their airspace and to impose sanctions against other Belarusian enterprises.
The expert drew attention to one of the statements made by Roman Protasevich in an interview with ONT TV channel. “Protasevich made a stunning revelation. He openly stated that Belarusian protesters were radicalizing street action with the aim of getting the West to impose sanctions on their own country. How much will these sanctions affect the Belarusian economy? Trade and economic cooperation with Western countries is likely to decline every year, the same pertains to exports through the Baltic ports. The aviation industry has already been hurt; of course, the outlook is pretty grim, but one should see the cause of these problems. As it turns out, the cause lies precisely in the opposition-inspired protests. In fact, the initial raison d'être of the protests was to aggravate the social and economic situation in the country, to impoverish people, and then, taking advantage of mass discontent, to seize power. Nobody gave up on these plans. After the first phase of the revolution failed, the backup plan B is being implemented to slowly stifle Belarus economically, in order to try to rock the boat again,” the expert said.
According to him, Russia is now well aware that it is the main trade and economic partner of Belarus. “Russian people, the Russian authorities, and Russian business understand that Belarus needs their support, and I think that no one will dare to say that Belarus does not deserve this support. I think that in the future we might see re-direction of most of Belarusian exports to the Russian market and the strengthening of integration processes in the economy,” Pavel Feldman said.
