Lukashenko urges western politicians to think before imposing sanctions

One needs to think carefully before imposing sanctions against Belarus, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the Big Conversation with the President, a meeting with the public, experts and media community in the format of a big press conference in Minsk on 9 August. “They should not brandish sanctions like axes and pitchforks. This can have the opposite effect,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

At the same time he pointed out that despite what high-ranking officials may say, relations between Belarus and Western partners have been preserved at certain levels:

"But there are levels at which we continue dialogue with them, negotiations, and it has never stopped. We have a burning topic with the Poles (there are no contacts with the Lithuanians at all, but we will get over it), the European Union, with the Americans, on which we always conduct negotiations responsibly.

For example, the USA. They openly said that they greatly appreciated our work in combating the smuggling of radioactive materials, 5 or 6 cases the last year alone. They appreciated this, like the whole world did. Both Russia and China appreciate it. After all, who needs dirty explosives smuggled into the European Union. For Americans, this is a paramount topic. We appreciated their efforts, we worked together. We continue working now, but I warned them that if they push things too far, we will not cooperate with them on this matter at all. What can this lead to? One example is illegal migration. No, we are not blackmailing anyone. We do not threaten anyone. You just put us in the conditions that force us to react, and we do."

The President also spoke about the relations between Belarus and Russia. Last year’s events revealed a lot and pushed Belarus and Russia toward more robust cooperation, Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out. According to him, the external attack was aimed at Russia through Belarus, as it has always been:

"To be perfectly frank, there was no emergency rescue operation. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin offered help, but I refused then. I said I was handling it. I asked him, however, to create a reserve of some 1,000 military just in case. It was unlikely they would have been used, because I had the army in reserve. I would not have hesitated to put it into action if I had seen that they had moved far beyond crossing the red line. We handled the situation. The reserve was disbanded and sent back to the places of their permanent deployment. No other two countries can boast of such close relations."

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, this is why the states will easily overcome any sanctions imposed on them. “We are two self-sufficient countries. If you do not want to supply us with anything, then you will get an embargo. We will do well without your supplies. We have a huge territory, vast experience and everything necessary to plow the land, sow and crop the harvest and feed our people,” said the Belarusian leader.