Belarus is not threatened by European sanctions – Volya
The EU will not agree to sectoral sanctions against Belarus, although the list of persons against whom personal sanctions are imposed may be expanded.
This was stated by Volodymyr Volya, an international political scientist at the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, at a press conference in Kyiv, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Relations will, of course, change and are already changing. There are already statements about some economic sanctions from some EU countries, but this is not yet the position of the EU as a whole. There are retaliatory threats from the Belarusian authorities to apply counter-sanctions, including switching flows to Russian ports. For now these are statements. And the migration of company offices outside of Belarus has already begun.
When the EU sanctions are approved, it will be clear what kind of sanctions they are and what the retaliatory sanctions of Belarus will be. For now we can say that this will be a partial cooling of economic relations. The EU sanctions are still personal. The chances that Lukashenko will be on the sanctions list have increased. The option of sectoral sanctions was excluded. The EU's position at the beginning of September is that the EU will not harm Belarusian protesters. Most likely, this position will remain.
If we talk about Ukraine, the Ukrainian leadership is more focused on the official position of the EU as a whole, and not on the position of individual EU states that have more radical assessments. I think it is unlikely that Ukraine will support any ideas of introducing economic sanctions. And I don’t think that trade relations between Ukraine and Belarus will change. There are objective business contacts. I don’t think that Belarus will be so inclined as to refuse the benefits of cooperation with Ukraine - the supply of tractors, oil products and other things,” Volya said.
Belarus is not threatened by European sanctions – Volya