Andrey Rudenko
Russia and Belarus will jointly respond to EU sanctions. RIA Novosti publishes a statement by Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko.
It is noted that the collegiums of the Foreign Ministries of the two countries are planning to discuss further relations with the European Union in the coming days. “Moscow and Minsk are forced to answer them and do it in a coordinated manner,” the Russian diplomat said. He recalled that Belarus has recently reduced its participation in the EU's Eastern Partnership program to an expert one, since “real partners do not impose sanctions”. Rudenko also criticized the calls of the Belarusian opposition to introduce new sanctions against Minsk, which “will affect the country's authority.”
Earlier, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said that calls for economic sanctions from the opposition are a great danger for the country. Retaliatory sanctions from Belarus may affect, in particular, cooperation with the European Commission and the European Union on nuclear energy issues, in the common fight against illegal immigration, cross-border crime and drug smuggling.
On October 15, the European Union imposed sanctions against six Russians and one scientific institute due to the situation with the intoxication of Alexei Navalny. In particular, the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Russian president's internal policy department, Andrei Yarin, and others fell under the sanctions. Prior to that, the European Union imposed sanctions against 40 Belarusian officials on October 2. The country's President Alexander Lukashenko was not included in the initial list; sanctions were imposed on him on November 6. In addition, they affected 14 Belarusian officials, whose assets were frozen.
In Belarus, for the fourth month, mass protests continue, which began after the presidential elections on August 9. According to official results, Alexander Lukashenko, who ran for a sixth term, received 80 percent of the vote.
