Avdonin: New Sanctions Package Against Belarus Will Worsen Crisis in Relations with the West

A new package of sanctions against Belarus will lead to an escalation of the crisis in relations with the West. Alexei Avdonin, an analyst at the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Research (BISR), shared this opinion with a BELTA correspondent.

"The introduction of a new package of sanctions will not contribute to the development of bilateral or multilateral relations of the EU, the USA with Belarus, but on the contrary, it will lead to an escalation of the crisis. But it must be understood that the Belarusian people have made their choice. And attempts to impose their will on the Belarusian people through such sanctions will only lead to an even greater rejection of the perception of Western countries by both Belarus itself and its people," said Alexei Avdonin.

According to him, after a certain period of time, Western countries themselves will have to try to establish and build dialogue with Belarus. "Why will they do this? Because they have a very strong financial and economic lobby. These are large companies and corporations that are naturally interested in working in the Belarusian market, in the EAEU market. And sanctions are a blow to the interests of large European and American companies and banks. Therefore, when parties or centers of power succumb to political adventures and the interests of certain political groups, they, as a rule, act to the detriment of their national capital and their population, who receive jobs in these companies. Product supplies will decrease, salaries will decrease, and they will thereby receive a reverse effect from the introduction of such sanctions," the analyst noted.

Alexey Avdonin is confident that the most significant retaliatory sanction from Belarus will be the ability of our enterprises and economy to quickly reorient and create conditions for the development of domestic production of goods and services previously supplied from Western countries. "This applies to technological equipment and the operational capabilities of various financial and banking structures. It signifies more active and close cooperation, primarily with China, the leader of the global economy, which holds and will continue to hold the leading position in economic growth rates for the next 10-15 years. We need to actively develop cooperation simultaneously with Middle Eastern countries and adopt their advanced technologies. We must create knowledge-intensive, high-yield products and services on the territory of Belarus, thereby eliminating the possibility of our dependence on those countries that attempt to influence the Belarusian state through sanctions," he concluded.