Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has discussed the country’s retaliatory measures to the Western sanctions with Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Belarus Vladimir Orlovsky, the presidential press service said on Tuesday.
“I need the assessment of our actions and (a report on) how you are operating to counter the Western sanctions. The West has imposed sanctions against us, and we retaliated. You are responsible for the main function at the economic forefront, which is to monitor the realization of anti-sanction measures, our tit-for-tat response. How do they look today? What is happening in this regard?” Lukashenko said.
Orlovsky, in turn, said that the situation had changed due to the EU sanctions as the Russian and Belarusian trucks were denied the entry into the bloc.
“But we got our act together in a week. We had already established logistic centers at the border, expanded and equipped a number of sites and switched the personnel to the round-the-clock mode,” he added.
Minsk has been facing another wave of sanctions for expressing support for Russia‘s special military operation in Ukraine, launched on February 24, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The United States and other Western countries have since been pressuring Moscow and Minsk with sanctions and providing Kiev with military and financial assistance.
Relations between Belarus and the Western countries soured after the 2020 presidential election, which provoked mass protests in the republic and then were violently suppressed by law enforcement officers using special equipment. Lukashenko accused the West of direct interference in the situation in the republic. Western countries began gradually imposing sanctions against Belarusian officials and entities while accusing Minsk of election violations and human rights abuses.
