Opinion: by imposing its illegal restrictions West tried to strangle the economies of Belarus and Russia

When imposing its sanctions, the West wanted to strangle the economies of Belarus and Russia but got the opposite effect – as stated by Vasily Koltashov, the Head of the Economic Research Centre at the New Society Institute, during his talk with Belarus 1 TV channel

Photo: video screenshot

The specialist outlined two ways in which our countries should now move, “The fact is that the West, introducing its illegal trade and financial restrictions, sought to strangle the economies of Belarus and Russia by depriving us of a mass of necessary goods. But we simply faced the question that now we have to produce all this ourselves. To do this, two fundamentally important steps must be taken. The first is not to cling to Western privileges, enabling economic structures of Belarus and Russia to develop new directions. If we lack any components, we use reverse engineering to see how they can be produced and manufacture them. From the point of view of the economy of emptiness, this is good. If we don’t have something, we must and can produce it. In this regard, the co-operation [of Belarus and Russia] is very important. The second point concerns the fact that for the implementation of these tasks it is necessary to create appropriate structures. It is necessary to unite enterprises into single structures of the Union State.”

The expert also stressed that interaction between the two states is what enables us to develop faster in industrial terms and liaise for effective foreign trade.

“We should consider all threats only as an incentive to accelerate economic collaboration and move forward faster,” he said.