The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Vladimir Makey announced the expansion of sanctions against EU , reports TASS .
“The European Union has introduced additional sanctions against a dozen people. We will also expand our personal sanctions lists, which will include representatives of the leadership of the European Union, the leadership of a number of European states,” Makei said in an interview with the Belarus-1 TV channel.
The minister recalled that representatives of the Belarusian opposition, who are now abroad, advocated tougher personal sanctions, but not economic ones, and now they are in favor of tough economic sanctions. He called these calls “a great danger for the statehood of Belarus as a whole.” “If someone thinks that this will be beneficial, then he is deeply mistaken. Of course, we will talk with our Western partners in this regard,” Vladimir Makei added.
At the same time, the head of MFA noted that “if someone wants a fire in this region “, then Minsk will find something to answer to the initiators of such decisions. “And then it will be hot around Belarus as well,” Makei stressed. At the same time, he pointed out that Belarus will never initiate any destructive actions towards its partners, the republic stands for the logic of cooperation.
The European Union officially introduced sanctions against 40 Belarusian officials on October 2. At the same time, the country’s president Alexander Lukashenko was not on this list. On November 6, sanctions were imposed against Lukashenka himself, as well as 14 more Belarusian officials. Their assets in Europe will be frozen, and they will be banned from entering the EU.
The presidential elections in Belarus were held on August 9. CEC announced that Lukashenka, who ran for a sixth term, won 80 percent of the vote. The country was gripped by protests, which were violently dispersed.