“We will continue to provide all-round help to the fraternal Belarusian people even in the current, difficult domestic political situation,” Putin said on Thursday at a forum of the regions. The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko also took part in the plenary session in video format.
Sanctions recently imposed by the EU mainly harm the Belarusian economy and the common people, Putin criticized. After the forced landing of a European passenger plane in Minsk and the arrest of a government critic, the EU put far-reaching economic sanctions into effect. This is intended to weaken Lukashenko’s power apparatus. Belarusian opposition members around Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania, welcomed this. The economically weak Belarus is dependent on financial injections from Moscow.
In response to the sanctions, Belarus said goodbye to the EU’s so-called Eastern Partnership program earlier this week. The head of the EU delegation in Minsk, Dirk Schübel, was asked to leave the country.
