Lukashenko on EU sanctions: They are shooting themselves in the foot

By imposing sanctions the EU countries are shooting themselves in the foot, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at an opening ceremony of city children's polyclinic No. 9 in Minsk, BelTA has learned

"No one cares about economy. They do not think about it. Let's take Lithuania and Latvia, for example (I do not take Poland, although it fits the pattern too). Well, they have not only shot themselves in the foot. They have already shot themselves in the head. You must think before you impose sanctions, mustn't you?" the president said.

He gave an example of cargo transportation when those who impose sanctions suffer from the restrictions imposed by themselves and from the retaliatory measures.

The head of state stressed that those who impose sanctions do more harm to their own economies, and literally in a year they may be face a collapse. This sanctions policy benefits primarily the United States, that wants to keep in check not only Russia and China, but also the European Union: "Americans are far away. They need to destroy not only Russia, China. They need to keep Europe in check. Europe has been recently talking about autonomy in defense (the current German chancellor is already openly talking about this; a referendum was held in the Netherlands). As soon as they started talking about an independent army, the Americans got terrified. How's that? What if they will not need NATO, at least not as many American troops. The same story happened with the euro. Once Europe introduced the euro, it became an enemy to the United States, the U.S. dollar. We see the same things today. Security issues are essential.”

“It is all in the head. The sixth, seventh rounds [of sanctions]. They have approached the sixth round and some, who still understand something (like the prime minister of Hungary), paused and suggested stopping. Otherwise this might all end in a collapse! Mark me, they will collapse in a year,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the situation with furniture production in the EU that bought large amounts of raw materials, timber primarily in Russia and Belarus. “Their woodworking industry will collapse. So will others sectors. They have destroyed all logistics and production links. I think they will finally stop [imposing new sanctions]. They have already adopted half a package, and some are urging a need for a pause.