Russia and Belarus to respond to Western sanctions together

Russia and Belarus will jointly respond to Western sanctions imposed on Minsk after the Ryanair flight incident, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said, SB.Belarus Today reports from the government meeting.

The corresponding instructions to develop response measures have already been given to the governments of both countries, Lukashenko said. He demanded Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko should not delay the resolution of this issue."

Lukashenko did not clarify what measures exactly Russia and Belarus could take in response to Western sanctions. 

“All this should be reasonable, impiulse-free, we do not want to shoot ourselves in the leg, in the arm, or even in the head,” he said.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the situation with Belarus was "depressing", so sanctions would definitely follow. According to Merkel, the restrictive measures will be targeted.

The EU warned Lukashenko that the upcoming package of restrictive measures will only mark the beginning of more serious pressure if his regime does not make concessions. At the same time, the leaders of Germany and France said they would like to continue the dialogue with Russia.

• The relationship between the West and Belarus deteriorated sharply again on May 23, 2021, after the RyanAir jetliner, en route from Athens to Vilnius, made an emergency landing in the Belarusian capital accompanied by MiG-29 fighter.
• The reason for the emergency landing was a bomb report.
• Immediately after landing, Belarusian security forces detained former editor-in-chief of NEXTA Telegram channel Roman Protasevich, who was on board the landed airplane.